Evansville – the motorist has been reported to have escaped from an injury after wheels around multiple barricades and driving in a giant Riverside Drive sink on Thursday afternoon, police in Evansville said.
A white Chevrolet truck was pulling from the scene when the courier and the press arrived. Earlier photos on social media showed the car deep in a gravel sink.
Evansville police officer on the spot said there was no injury. The truck obviously got out of Chestnut Street.
Thick of fences with chain connection and orange barriers surround the massive hole that is formed at the end of February because of the Evansville water supply and sewer employees, the sewer line nestled under the road is damaged. Since then, Riverside driving has been closed in both directions.
But a spokesman for EPD SGT. Anthony Ausiker told Courier & Press “The driver was moving around the barricades and in the sink.” They did not receive any kind of quotation, he said.
EWSU spokesman Ella Johnson-Vatzon said it seemed that the truck did not cause obvious damage to the site. However, workers were still exploring the situation on Thursday afternoon.
“We had barricades there and they are ready for a reason. For (driving) safety,” Johnson-Vatwaton told Courier & Press. “… We strongly encourage them not to go around barriers.”
A truck was drawn away from the scene after Evansville’s police claimed that the driver was around many barricades and fell into a giant, partially filled sink by Riverside Drive on Thursday afternoon.
Last problem with Evansville’s sink
The incident is only the most new problem for the sink, which has been charging city officials and residents nearby for months.
Troy Wilson, a representative of the Masonic Temple in the nearby chestnut and third streets, was confronted with EWSU officials during a press conference on May 15 and stated that the gravel and other materials that usefulness had used to fill the hole had caused problems with the floods in the historic temple.
EWSU officials said they had filled the sinking so as not to collapse. Wilson believes that the material blocks the flow of water in the sewer and has put pressure to accumulate inside the building, sending liquid shooting from the sink and toilets to the temple when it is raining.
“We never had water in this building until they did it,” he told Courier & Press.
On the other side of the street of Trinity, the United Methodist Church has flooded many times in recent weeks. Board member Brian Williams said it was the first time the building had taken water after a 1937 record flood.
Miller believes EWSU has to pay for damage in the temple, which he says extends to thousands and thousands of dollars. In a statement to Courier & Press on May 21, EWSU CEO Vick Kelson said he would not “speculate what exactly caused the high water level in the combined sewer on Kesta Street.”
This can be caused by several factors, he said: “either by undetected obstruction, the roots of the trees, the physical failure of an aging sewer, or just a short -term high -intensity storm event.”
“I know that some members of the public speculate that the RIP-Rap, which is placed in the hole in Chestnut and Riverside, has created backup copies,” he writes. “The fact is that the situation is much more complicated than that.”
EWSU said there is no schedule about when the sink can be fixed. During the press conference on May 15, Kelson and Deputy Director of Field Operations Justin Gutling said that due to the rain barges for rain and the high levels of the Ohio River, the water continues to penetrate the sink, which makes it dangerous to access workers.
In order to repair, the river will have to withdraw to 23 feet and remain in this way for some time. As of Thursday, he stood on a manageable 19.72 feet, but next week he would rise again.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: TRUCK DRIVES in Giant Evansville Sinkhole on Riverside Drive