Sinkholes are seemingly everywhere these days. A sinkhole attracted national attention earlier this year when it swallowed a Florida man in his home. He’s never been found. A nine-acre sinkhole in Louisiana is threatening an entire neighborhood. And in Illinois, a sinkhole collapsed underneath a golfer’s feet in Waterloo.
There are sinkholes in Cape Girardeau, too. But as KRCU’s Jacob McCleland reports, they’re stable...for now.
Cape Giradeau’s sinkholes are located near the Buzzi Unicem quarry on South Sprigg Street. They caused damage to the street a couple year ago, but for now they are inactive.
The sinkholes collapse when water migrates from Cape La Croix Creek to the quarry’s pit, carrying sediment through underground tunnels and surface openings. That weakens the surface, causing the sinkholes to collapse.
Kelly Green is Cape Girardeau’s assistant City Manager.
“Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of proactive things you can do down there,” Green said. “So we just continue to keep the sinkholes filled with large rock and things like that to keep the dirt from migrating.”
Green says the good news is the sinkholes are not in a densely populated part of the city.
“Fortunately there are not a lot of homes in this area. The biggest impacts are Buzzi’s quarry. The city does have infrastructure down there, Sprigg Street, the bridge, and some water. There’s some gas and some electric that we continue to work with Ameren on that too to monitor that area,” Green said.
The city is applying for a 12 million dollar grant to channelize the creek in hopes that will control the sinkhole problem.