BY ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Kansas Department of Transportation is looking at ways to either repair or stop the sinkhole that continues to develop on US 50 east of Hutchinson.
The Brandy Lake sinkhole, as it is called, has been dropping for many years and now KDOT wants to do something about it. According to spokesperson Tim Potter, KDOT will begin to survey the area and hopes to begin repairs to the road as early as 2024.
The sinkhole is a natural phenomenon caused by the underlying salt layer that is retreating from east to west, according to Rick Miller with the Kansas Geological Survey. Miller says the drop of the road continues, but the rate is not constant.
“We were actively looking at it probably ten years ago. It was going at a rate of probably three to six inches a year,” Miller said. “Subsidence like that, especially when its migrating from 300 or 400 feet down it can go kind of in spurts, so it can be gradual for awhile and then kick in.”
The sinkhole is not a problem for now, according to Miller, but if the underlying cavity should migrate to the surface it could create serious problems.
“If there was anything that was migrating upward toward the road that might come in contact with some of the solid structures…if all of a sudden one side, probably the east side, drops down because of subsidence…all of a sudden in the middle of the night you could have a one foot drop.”
Miller says natural migration of water from the surface is eroding the salt layer and creating cavities underground that result in the sinkholes.
He says the area will continue to see the natural subsidence for well beyond a thousand years.
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