BANGOR, Maine — A sinkhole that developed Wednesday on the waterfront near the paved walkway has been temporarily filled with stone but pedestrians are still being kept away from the area until a more permanent fix can be implemented.
The sinkhole, located about 200 feet south of the intersection of Railroad and Front streets, is believed to have been caused by a collapsed storm water outflow line, according to Bangor Public Works Director Dana Wardwell. He estimated the hole was about 8 feet deep, 15-feet long and 15-feet wide before it was filled in Wednesday night.
“We filled it in with stone which is temporarily plugging the hole in the pipe, but don’t expect that to hold for long,” Wardwell said late Thursday morning.
Until a contractor with the right equipment can be hired to repair the damaged line, runoff going through it and rising tidal water from the Penobscot River will continue to erode the soil underneath the walkway in that area, he said.
The storm line, which likely was built in the 1800s, handles all the stormwater runoff from catch basins all along that part of main street, Wardwell said. The line itself is made out of stone and is about 6-feet square, he said.
“They lugged a lot of rocks with their horse and buggy back then,” he quipped about the public works crews that built the line.
Bangor has many aging drainage, sewer and water lines that occasionally collapse.
“A handful of times [each year] we have sinkholes or a collapsed pipe we have to deal with,” Wardwell said. “This one is little more concerning because of the size and location.”
While making it easier for safety and repairs, the broken line’s proximity to the river makes it more difficult to address.
The sinkhole was only 8-feet deep, but the damaged storm line is about 20 feet deep, Wardwell said. Workers had to wait until low tide around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday to fill in the sinkhole because it kept filling in with water.
“With each tide that comes in, we just don’t know,” he said Thursday.
Officials were looking to hire a contractor with bigger equipment than the city has to handle the earth work and to work in between the tides to fix the line, the public works director said.
“This has to be done soon,” Wardwell said, adding that he hoped to have a contractor working on it by the weekend.
In the meantime, pedestrians will be asked to stay away from the area and the road and parking areas south of Railroad Street between the railroad tracks and Penobscot River will remain closed.