Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor says a contract has been approved for repair work to take place.
Frederick, Md. (KM) – Residents could start seeing some activity at the site of the sinkhole along Monocacy Boulevard in Frederick. That’s according to Mayor Michael O’Connor, who provided an update during a recent appearance on WFMD’s “Morning News Express.”
The Mayor said the city last month awarded a contract to Pleasants Construction to clean out the sinkhole, restore a water line which was damaged when the hole opened, and pave the road. He said it’s not as simple as filling in the hole and laying down pavement. “We’re continuing–we, the city, in working now with our construction company–to finalize all of the geo-technical analysis that has to be done to understand the process, the specific way, we have to fix that hole so that we don’t have other problems after we come in here,” he said.
The sinkhole opened up in May. It started out as a small hole in a drainage swale along the side of Monocacy Boulevard. But rain and stormwater caused the hole to enlarge, and damage a 16-inch water line that ran under the road. That stretch of Monocacy Boulevard from East Street has been closed since then.
In June, the Board of Aldermen agreed to transfer $1-million from the general fund to the City’s Capital Improvements Program to pay for sinkhole repairs. “This was a bit of an unusual contract. We have a larger contingency in this contract then we would typically put into a construction project,” Mayor O’Connor says. “Until we actually get in there and start even excavating, it’s hard to know what’s down in the hole.”
City officials say the repairs could take between four to six weeks.
O’Connor said a lot of the activity to repair the hole has been going on away from the site, but citizens will see some changes very soon. “But they’re mobilized to the site now. And people should begin to see activity going on,”: he says.
By Kevin McManus
