ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. — A sinkhole on I-196 in Allegan County has closed the westbound lanes and forced a traffic detour, and officials say the drain infrastructure beneath the road is to blame.
The closure begins at M-40. Crews discovered the sinkhole near mile marker 45 late Tuesday night.
The sinkhole is about 8 feet deep and affects the westbound left lane. Allegan County Drain Commissioner Chris Machiela said the Michigan Department of Transportation contacted his office after discovering the sinkhole.
"They went out and investigated, called, said yes, it is a sinkhole on the drain. So at that time, they kind of shifted traffic to the one side. We went out there, also investigated the issue and took a peek at it and said, 'Yeah. So we made the tough decision last night of do we close the highway or not?'" Machiela said.
No injuries were reported, once the sinkhole was spotted late Tuesday night and crews blocked off the affected area.
The decision was made to close the westbound lanes in the interest of public safety.
"We should close the highway just for the public safety because we really don't want no one semis or anyone getting hurt," Machiela said.
The sinkhole is connected to the Rotman Drain, which crosses I-196 at that location. Machiela explained what caused the road to give way.
"It's called the Rotman Drain. Actually, crosses the highway there on 196," Machiela said. "It's basically a 72 inch pipe that the bottom edges of it are rusting out, so it's drawing the dirt in at the bottom of the pipe, so that ends up sucking the sand so it ends up falling and the road itself makes a void underneath the road."
MDOT tells FOX 17 that an oval-shaped culvert is failing beneath the road, apart of the Rotman drain. It sits approximately 10 feet under the roadway and holes in the culvert are drawing in material from the surrounding ground, creating the sinkhole.
Machiela said the pipe's age is the root cause of the failure.
"It was put in in 71 or 72, so that makes it almost 55 — could be 55 years old, being that metal pipe. It's a good run for it, but yeah, a lot of them are on rotational inspections from MDOT, and yeah, this one just deteriorated faster than what they anticipated," Machiela said.
He warned the problem may not be isolated to this stretch of road.
"They always say we're going to fix the roads, and I mean, yeah, there's a lot of miles of road that have old culverts and stuff like that that are scheduled. You know, but they
always don't always make the schedule of replacement like they want," Machiela said.
The prescribed detour takes drivers onto westbound M-40 into Holland, then onto southbound US-31, which merges with I-196 south of the city.
Machiela said he hopes the westbound lanes can reopen by next week.
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