PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. — Crews say a water main break caused what appeared to be a deceptively small sinkhole in a Prince George County neighborhood.
The news comes after neighbors on a cul-de-sac along Shallowood Drive told CBS 6 senior reporter Wayne Covil that they were worried about not being be able to drive out of their neighborhood because the sinkhole was much larger than it appeared on the surface.
In fact, what appeared to be a small pothole in the middle of Shallowood Drive was actually a 2-foot-deep cavity with a hollow area extending beneath the visible opening.
"I got home it wasn't there. I went to dinner and it appeared," said Marissa Moore, who lives on the street.
Moore discovered the danger when driving around what she initially thought was just a pothole.
"I saw what looked to be a pothole and when I went to go around it, I saw it was a gaping hole, not a pothole," Moore said. "And when I looked down, it was completely empty."
A camera lowered into the hole confirmed Moore's description of the underground cavity.
"It's completely hollow on the inside — like the dirt and stuff has washed away," Moore explained.
The affected portion of Shallowood Drive serves a small number of homes.
"Our street that we live on has a total of 8 houses on this side of the cul-de-sac," Moore said.
Officials said Friday that the county's utilities department was first alerted to the sinkhole at 9 p.m. on Monday.
Then VDOT crews placed barricades around the hole and utility workers began their investigation on Tuesday.
A contractor for the county then used closed-circuit television equipment to inspect the hole on Wednesday to determine that the issue was not with the sewer.
County officials then passed on that documentation to VDOT, which began excavating the sinkhole on Friday morning.
Officials said the water main operated by the Lundie Water System likely caused the sinkhole.
"VDOT and Lundie Water System representatives are currently on-site working together to complete the necessary repairs to the sinkhole," officials said.
County officials thanked neighbors who reported the sinkhole, "helping to prevent potential damage and ensuring that repairs could begin quickly."
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