SMALL SINKHOLE FOUND IN BACKYARDS BEING FIXED
Sinking lab reported by residents, inspected by county, cities; at least 4 properties affected
A sinkhole in several Warren backyards was discovered and repaired recently before it could expand and cause further damage.
Workers about a month ago completed a nearly $200,000 project to diagnose and fix a sinkhole surrounding the Lorraine Drain in the area south of 12 Mile Road and east of Van Dyke Avenue, Macomb County Public Works officials said in a news release.
“All of the sinkholes we encounter are not really big ones. Some of them are smaller, … but they all need to be fixed,” said county Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said. “When we find them, we fix them.”
The sinkhole was discovered after sagging land was reported by residents in four backyards, officials said.
A buried,
11-foot-diameter pipe was inspected in January, and Warren public service workers poured dye into the sinkhole in the rear yard easement of a home on Gail Drive. Inspectors later detected the dye in the Lorraine Drain storm-water pipe. The Macomb County Public Works Office followed up with two dye tests.
A crew entered the pipe and discovered dye seeping in from 18 joints at the ends of 8-footlong sections of concrete pipe, officials said. Minor leaks are often sealed with injection of grout. During the drilling of a grout port, workers found the void in the 8 feet between the top of the exterior of the pipe and the surface was much larger than expected, officials said. To repair that void, a flowable mixture of sand and cement was pumped into the cavity to fill it.
If the void — which was located less than 100 feet from 12 Mile — had been left undetected, it would have worsened