Message #35876

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/easton/index.ssf/2013/05/another_sinkhole_opens_up_on_n.html
Sinkhole traps truck on Northwood Avenue in Palmer Township(PA)
5/23/13

Another sinkhole opened up this morning on Northwood Avenue in Palmer Township, this one swallowing the front wheels of a Lowe's delivery truck.

The latest sinkhole is in the eastbound lane just outside a home at 2350 Northwood Ave. and is not far from previous sinkholes that opened recently.

Roy White, executive director of the Easton Suburban Water Authority, said crews have started working in the area of the 6-inch main break.

Just before 9 this morning, a school bus had traveled through the area when the driver noticed the sinkhole starting to form and called authorities, Palmer Township police said.

Before crews could arrive, the sinkhole opened up more and the Lowe's Home Improvement store delivery truck, which had stopped to deliver a riding lawn mower to a home along the road, became trapped.

Once the truck was freed from the hole, employees from the Bethlehem Township, Pa., Lowe's store unloaded the mower and pushed it past the sinkhole and up the driveway.

Palmer Township police are closing Northwood Avenue indefinitely from Tatamy Road to East Lane.

Sinkholes are common in the Lehigh Valley, where underground water runs through soft limestone that's prone to give way. But Palmer and Bethlehem township sinkholes are larger than most.

Crews in April had to repair two sizable sinkholes on Northwood Avenue, which collapsed from a leaky water main. A 16-inch main at that site led to the formation of another hole a few feet away.

On March 10, a sinkhole opened behind 1502 Second St. in Bethlehem Township. That sinkhole, which forced a family to leave its home, was blamed on an aging, leaky sewer main. A sinkhole formed in late April in Allentown.