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SUMMIT COUNTY — A 16-foot deep sinkhole appeared on I-80 eastbound near the Wyoming border on Wednesday when a pipe below the road caved in. It will be a lot more difficult to fix than a sinkhole on a city street, for many reasons.
For one, traffic is a lot faster, which makes it a lot more dangerous for workers. That's why they're trying to get it worked on as quickly as possible.
"On a scale of one to 10 as far as difficulty goes, probably give it a seven," said Devin Maxfield from Lyndon Jones Construction.
Maxfield has fixed plenty of sinkholes before, but the one on I-80 eastbound about 16 miles from the Wyoming line is more challenging than most.
"We'll have to cut open a hole in the road, dig all of the damaged material out, refill it," Maxfield said.
One of my crew members happened to drive through here yesterday morning and felt it and found it and we immediately closed the road.
–Bryant Richins, UDOT supervisor
It doesn't look like that big of a deal until you look at it from below. A big pipe is right underneath the sinkhole, and for some reason, a piece of the pipe caved in from the top. When that happened, the land above it came crashing down, resulting in this hole.
"One of my crew members happened to drive through here yesterday morning and felt it and found it, and we immediately closed the road," said Bryant Richins, a UDOT supervisor.
There have been no reports of any car damage, but drivers certainly don't want to drive over this spot.
"No, you don't," Richins said. "It'll definitely do some damage."
To fix it, another pipe has been ordered that will slip through the old pipe.
But first, crews are putting jersey barriers in place to keep drivers from running over the hole and to keep work crews safe from drivers.
"Please be careful. Please slow down," Maxfield said. "We're not in a race. We're trying to get this job done as quick as we can, and get the road back open as soon as possible."
It should take about a week to get the sinkhole fixed. It depends on how quickly crews can get that pipe in and slip it into the spot where the old pipe is, but UDOT says it should definitely be done by Memorial Day.
