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Shoulder Of Highway 97 In Walnut Hill Collapses Into 50-Foot Deep Gully
May 15, 2014
A portion of Highway 97 in Walnut Hill has collapsed in an existing 50-foot deep gully.
The travel lanes of the highway are still intact at the site and the road is still open, just north of South Highway 99 and about mile south of Ernest Ward Middle School. But the shoulder of the road is now at the bottom of the gully.
It appears a large drainage pipe traveled under Highway 97 to the site of the collapse and then curved downward along the bank of the gully where it was designed to drain at the bottom. But the pipe apparently separated under the shoulder of the roadway, just beyond a guardrail, and blew out and undermined the shoulder of the road.
The collapse apparently happened during heavy rains late Wednesday afternoon and was discovered overnight.
Florida Department of Transportation contractor Transfield Services inspected the collapse Thursday morning and determined that it is safe for both lanes of Highway 97 to remain open.
Pictured above and below: A drainage pipe failed and a portion of the shoulder of Highway 97 collapsed into a 50-foot deep gully. The bottom photo shows the dirt from the roadway shoulder at the bottom of the gully. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
4 Responses to “Shoulder Of Highway 97 In Walnut Hill Collapses Into 50-Foot Deep Gully”
Should have just let the kudzu grow.
Here again the North end of the county will have to have a bad disaster here BEFORE it is fixed. The BP money is not being used correctly and where it was intended to be used. I think it should be used to replenish the Gulf of the things we lost there – not all the inland projects. As the news is now reporting there was TOO many claims submitted far far from the spill. A mistake as bad as this one is now causing all the oil companies to seek production in foreign countries so no one should complain about how high fuel is going now. We are RUNNING them out of the U.S.
I think this is something we are going to see more and more of.
Roads have new dips / depressions / divots in them that were not there before the rains and flooding.
The old and crumbling infrastructure is beginning to be more evident.
Drove downtown today. Palafox Street going down the hill south of Cervantes is washboarding. Intersections at Barrancas and Garden have deepening dips and depressions. Other places are showing age and undermining.
Same is true in the north end of the county as evidenced above.
Why are the politicians not spending the BP monies on real problems like this instead of a fish hatchery downtown?
Looks like it is time to spend some county money on Shield’s Gulch!