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 The pier near the hole -- about 6 feet by 4 feet in area and a couple of feet deep
-- did not move during the bridge collapse.
A sinkhole could indicate a larger erosion problem in that area, one engineer said. State Transportation Department spokesman Kevin Gutknecht said the hole was a washout caused by water draining off the bridge.
"It did not appear to have any impact on that particular pier," Gutknecht said. "That pier did not move."
E-mails obtained by The Associated Press through a freedom of information request are the first mention of a hole near any support piers. The piers were the concrete pedestals that held up the steel components of the bridge's underbelly.
The documents, which include several e-mails and four photos, have apparently been turned over to investigative teams, according to one e-mail sent days after the Aug. 1 collapse.
In a July 12 e-mail, Tom Osthoff, a maintenance supervisor at the department, said he had his crew put a barrier around it so no one would fall in.
The hole was first discovered in December and initial repairs were made in January, Gutknecht said. This summer, 45 wheelbarrows of concrete had been poured into the hole, with work done as recently as July 25. The fix wasn't complete by the time of the collapse.
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 National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Terry Williams wouldn't comment on the hole's place in the investigation.
The area where the hole was found is where the bridge deck broke away on the southern side. The hole was worn through a few inches of asphalt, but it was unclear what the underlying material was.
Bashar Qubain, president and chief engineer of Wayne, Pa.-based GeoStructures, said that the limestone and dolomite in the area are prone to caverns and other underground erosion, and that they tend to be part of a network rather than a solitary deformity.
"If there is a serious sinkhole happening on the surface, there is usually a deeper problem below," Qubain said. But, he noted, the designs called for the piers to be built on solid rock, diminishing the chances that a sinkhole would jeopardize the bridge.
[Associated Press; by Brian Bakst]
Associated Press writer Joshua Freed contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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