Drivers on part of East College Avenue outside of State College are being forced to take a detour thanks to a sinkhole that opened up over the weekend.
A sinkhole about one and a half feet wide was discovered Saturday afternoon on East College Avenue near the Nittany Mall. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation immediately closed the stretch between Benner Pike and Shiloh Road for repairs. For now, drivers are taking a short detour.
Penn State geologist Duff Gold, who tracks sinkholes in the area, was studying the sinkhole on Monday afternoon and advising PennDOT crews on how to fill in the crater.
“What we recommend is what we call an inverse filter,” Gold said. “So you start off with very big rock, some of it four or five feet across at the bottom, and then slowly decrease the size of the rocks you put in there.”
Gold says Nittany Valley is prone to sinkholes thanks to its limestone bedrock that dissolves when water moves underground. They’ve opened up on Penn State’s campus, in State High’s memorial field and in other parts of the County.
A PennDOT foreman working on the project says the repair should be done within a couple of days.
