Crews work to repair sink hole on Interstate 25 in Colorado

The sinkhole on Interstate 25 was 16 feet deep.

The Associated Press

2/8/2008

DENVER — Crews worked through the night Thursday to repair a 40-foot-wide sinkhole on Interstate 25 that closed down northbound lanes and backed up traffic for 10 miles during the afternoon commute.

Highway officials said it was doubtful the 16-foot-deep hole, which spanned three traffic lanes and the right shoulder.

Officials were rushing to fix the problem before the Friday morning rush, but weren’t sure they could.

Until the hole is repaired, all northbound traffic is being diverted into the two-lane High Occupancy Vehicle corridor. That means those lanes may not be available to southbound traffic as usual on Friday morning.

"It'll add to the congestion, but we had to have some lanes for northbound," Crane said.

About 2 million gallons of water rushing from a broken 66-inch-diameter conduit gouged the sinkhole just north of downtown near 58th Street. No vehicles fell into the water-filled crater, which was first spotted at about 3 p.m.

Southbound lanes remained open, but northbound traffic had to squeeze into the HOV lanes or use jam-packed city streets.

The Denver water department said the break was likely caused by a pressure surge. Department spokeswoman Stacy Chesney said the leak reduced water pressure for some customers but no one lost service.

Daily traffic in both directions where the break occurred averages up to 199,000 vehicles, Crane said.

The Thursday afternoon traffic jam cleared out by 7:30 p.m., Transportation Department spokesman Joe Tucker said.

A similar sinkhole on Interstate 70 near Vail in 2003 took 11 days to fix.