Iler Field has been temporarily closed after two sinkholes were discovered in the field on Thursday, Feb. 5.
According to Michael Lonon, the director of Environmental Health and Safety, the first sinkhole was found by a student, while the second was found by officials after they used a “ground-probing tool and probed around and found the second one.”
Caution tape was wrapped around the whole field, and then separately wrapped around each area where the currently known sinkholes were found.
A notice was sent out to students, faculty and staff in order to inform them of the field closing.
A geo-engineering firm, Draper Aden Associates, was requested to be at the site today, but the firm was unable to come out on the short notice.
“It turns out that we couldn’t mobilize them that quickly, and so they’ll be here on Monday,” said Lonon.
As far as the process of investigating the situation, Lonon stated that the firm may be using a ground-penetrating radar.
“I don’t know specifically what they’re going to do. I know that I asked for someone who could do ground-penetrating radar. It’s the ideal technology to find anything under there,” said Lonon.
The sinkholes are currently unable to be taken care of due to their location in the field.
“We could fix these two. The problem is they’re in the middle of the field, so if there are others, driving heavy vehicles over to fix these two, like a tractor or something like that or a dump truck full of dirt, the problem is the risk of that vehicle falling in another hole if there is one. The steps to follow are investigate the extent of the problem, and when we get it mapped out, we can plan for how to fix them,” said Lonon.
According to Lonon, the cause of the sinkholes is most likely from water flow. A stream which comes from the pond next to Bedford Hall, flows underneath Brock Commons and Iler Field, and comes out down near Longwood Landings.
“Most likely, it’s in some way related to the stream that goes underneath the field. We just have to see because if we get ground-penetrating radar, we should be able to see where that conduit for the stream is and see if it’s in relation to any of these holes,” said Lonon.
The best outcome of the situation would be that the sinkholes aren’t actually sinkholes and are formed some other way and doesn’t have any other source. They would be able to be filled and the field could be opened again.
The worst outcome would be more sinkholes, leading to other issues.
As far as monetary cost, Lonon stated that he wasn’t sure the cost of at least the two sinkholes at this point in the situation.
“It could be as simple as the grounds department goes and digs some dirt and dumps dirt in them, or it could be a more engineered solution.” Lonon continued, “We’re still in the investigation phase, so everything is speculative at this point.”
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