© Mike Eiman/The Sentinel
County road crews closed a section of Houston Avenue southeast of Hanford after a massive sinkhole opened Sunday night.
Kings County Roads Superintendent Tony Gomes said motorists discovered the sinkhole in the eastbound lane of Houston Avenue, just east of Sixth Avenue, around 9:30 p.m. County roads employees were called shortly after and found a hole that encompassed the entire lane.
Gomes said a big rig reportedly made it through the area unscathed Sunday night. One car got a flat tire, while a second car got three flat tires.
By Monday morning, the hole had grown to three or four times its original size. Gomes said both lanes of Houston Avenue will remain closed between Second and Sixth avenues until further notice. Motorists are being asked to use Highway 198 to bypass the affected area.
"I have never encountered this in 42 years," Gomes said. "We've had squirrel holes and gopher holes that have taken water from the high side of the road and caused erosion until finally the road will dimple down. But only a dimple, not a huge cavity."
Officer John Tyler, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, said drivers should always maintain a speed that's appropriate for the conditions.
"If you can't see a hazard down the road, you need to slow down," Tyler said.
Tyler said the sinkhole likely appeared after the big rig driver tried to avoid what looked like a bump in the road. It's unclear whether the drivers of the cars that were damaged could have done anything to avoid it.
"It was basically not there, and then it was," Tyler said.
© Mike Eiman/The Sentinel
"Finally the bridge finally got so thin that the pavement fell in," Gomes said.
Gomes said less severe sinkholes were recently found at 9 1/2 Avenue south of Kent Avenue, and at Excelsior Avenue east of Fifth Avenue. Those were easily repaired because they did not form a large cavity in the road.
Hanford city officials responded to a similar sinkhole Friday night on 12th Avenue north of Houston Avenue. Streets Superintendent Russ Sterling said the 6-by-4-foot hole was caused by a leaky irrigation pipe owned by the People's Ditch Co. that crosses the road.
"It's pretty deep and pretty expansive," Sterling said.
Sterling said 12th Avenue will remain closed between Hume and Houston avenues until further notice. Like the sinkhole at Houston and Sixth avenues, repairs cannot begin until the ditch company finishes its water deliveries. Sterling did not have an estimate Monday of how long that might take.
This is the second sinkhole in Hanford over the past week. A leaky water main caused a sinkhole last week on Cortner Street north of Hidden Valley Park. The city closed the street for repairs and has since reopened it to traffic.
Gomes said the Lakeside Ditch Company reduced the pumping of additional water into the canal Sunday night. County officials asked the company to resume water delivery on Monday morning.
Because the road cannot be repaired while water is in the canal, county road crews will have to wait to begin repairs until deliveries are completed late next week. In the meantime, Gomes said, the water may cause the hole to erode deeper into the ground but is not likely to cause additional damage to the street.
"After five years of drought, the farmers are in need of this water," Gomes said.
Kings County Public Works Director Kevin McAlister said sinkholes can form when a portion of the pipe erodes or is otherwise damaged. When water passes through the weakened pipe, it can leak into the surrounding soil and cause the street to sink.
McAlister said the county replaces about four to five underground pipes, known as culverts, each year due to age. McAlister said
He said county workers would likely have seen signs of the damage earlier if water had continued to flow through the canal.
"I don't think there's a way we can predict this," McAlister said.
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