Two-metre deep sinkhole found on busy main road
‘You need to get out here now – buses and lorries drive here’
Highways officers rushed to repair a stretch of main road after a sinkhole appeared in the carriageway.
Pete Baker discovered the hole last Wednesday evening as he was leaving a plastering job at a house in Loose Road.
He said: “I was working at a property as part of my work as PSB Plastering, alongside RSM property maintenance.
“I finished around 5.30pm, and was loading up the van when I saw it.”
Mr Baker put a long stick down the hole to see how deep it was, and estimates it was more than two metres.
“I called Kent Highways and said ‘you need to get out here now, buses and lorries drive down this road’, and it looked ready to go,” he said.
The hole is in the Maidstonebound carriageway, close to the junction with Heather Drive.
One lane of the busy A-road was closed coming into Maidstone while officers carried out repairs and checked for damage to pipework.
They dug out a 3m by 2m section, which was approximately two metres deep, to fully expose the affected area.
A Kent County Council spokesman said: “A damaged link to the main storm drain from the road gully caused water to trickle out of the connection and wash away the fine material in the ground over time.
“This causes the larger bulk material to drop away, leaving a void. Other parts of the road are not susceptible to a similar problem.
“This is a one-off due to a damaged drainage connection.”