2 lanes on Long Island Expressway closed due to large sinkhole; delays expected
Suffolk County police say the sinkhole was reported to them around 1 p.m.
Two lanes are currently closed on the Long Island Expressway westbound at Exit 49 due to a sinkhole.
The lane closure is expected to last at least 24 hours, police say.
The sinkhole is approximately 10 feet in diameter and 8 feet deep.
Jeffrey Jimenez hit the sinkhole and blew out both his front tires. He tried to warn the driver behind him, but it was too late. The other car ended up partially in the hole.
“It’s scary. By the grace of God I’m fine. I didn’t get hurt thank God,” Jimenez said. “I’ve never seen anything like that. That’s fatal. Someone could die from something like that.”
The state Department of Transportation says the sinkhole appears to have been caused by a contractor working under permit on a local municipal sewage project.
The DOT says crews began work Thursday night to secure the area and install new asphalt pavement.
But for now, the right lanes of the Westbound expressway remain closed.
Suffolk County police say the sinkhole was reported to them around 1 p.m., and no injuries have been reported.
Te Pei, a civil engineering assistant professor at Stony Brook, says underground pipelines and erosion can create the perfect conditions for a collapse like this.
"We need to really look into the subsurface pipeline system and the local geology,” Pei said. “So where it might occur is not certain, but definitely there might be more incidents in the future."
Pei says it’s a long process to fix a sinkhole like this. Crews have to excavate the area, identify the cause, replace damaged infrastructure, backfill the sinkhole and restore the pavement. Otherwise the same area could collapse again.
A DOT spokesperson released the following statement:
"The New York State Department of Transportation responded this afternoon to a sinkhole on the westbound Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495) in the deceleration lane for Exit 49N (State Route 110) in the Town of Huntington, Suffolk County. The sinkhole appears to have been caused by a contractor working under permit on a local municipal sewage project. Work is beginning this evening to secure the area and install new asphalt pavement. The right and center lanes of the westbound expressway will remain closed until the repairs have been completed.
Motorists may use the North Service Road or the Northern State Parkway as an alternate route. While a timeline is not currently available, we are working as expeditiously as we can to fully reopen the Long Island Expressway sometime tomorrow. We appreciate the patience of the traveling public."
