NEW ORLEANS — The sinkhole that caused a major disruption at an I-10 exit ramp in New Orleans has been repaired, the Louisiana Department of Transportation said Saturday.
The Metairie Road - City Park exit was reopened to traffic. The sinkhole appeared suddenly during a driving rain Thursday night.
“The sinkhole was discovered by a motorist around 10:45 last night,” said Louisiana Department of Transportation spokesman Chris Welty.
Motor Assist crews quickly put up cones and barricades and secured the area.
According to DOTD, a concrete drainage box underneath a metal catch basin next to the hole was somehow damaged.
We asked civil engineer H.J. Bosworth to inspect the hole.
“The drainpipe would have to have a crack in it or a separation,” Bosworth said. “As the water flows through this crack, it erodes the area near the pipe, removes the material from above the pipe and eventually causes the pavement to collapse above.”
Bosworth says the drainage system here was likely damaged for a while.
“This is not an immediate problem, this is something that’s been happening for a while, but overnight, we had a whole lot of rain and with a whole lot of rain, there’s a whole lot of drainage and a whole lot of drainage, having a whole lot of erosion when you have a broken pipe,” he said.
Welty says there were no signs the roadway was going to collapse.
“Our DOTD, they monitor this route every two weeks,” Welty said. “They did not see any dips in the road. There was no ponding at this location. There was no indication a sinkhole was forming at this spot.”
Crews began working to make emergency repairs to the concrete drainage structure. After that was completed, they backfilled the hole and patched the roadway.
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