GOLDEN, Colo. — The heavy rain lately has been causing issues above and below ground. Flooding on top, and sinkholes underneath.
Sinkholes were reported Sunday in Parker, Littleton and Elbert County.
“When you look at damage to a building or a road or something, most of the time you can track it back to something to do with water,” said Paul Santi, a professor of Geological Engineering at Colorado School of Mines.
Santi said water can erode the soil and create a cavern or air pocket underneath a roadway, and many times we don’t know it’s there until the pavement falls.
“There are collapse sinkholes that just appear instantaneously," he said. "And there are solution sinkholes that appear slowly, as if the ground is being sucked down.”
Santi said water can flow under the road like a small stream and can gradually seep through the topsoil, or it can penetrate a defect in the road, like a pothole.
It can take years for the soil to shift under a road, but in many cases, the erosion can happen with just a single storm over one or two days.
The sinkhole in Parker did give some warning signs that it was about to fail. Someone noticed an unusual indentation in the road and police were able to close it before the collapse. That’s not always the case. In 2018, a sinkhole swallowed a car at West Oxford Avenue and South Santa Fe Drive – the driver was not injured.
Section of road collapses in Parker
In 2015, a Sheridan Police Department cruiser fell into a sinkhole in the same area. The officer sustained minor injuries.
Santi said the weather this year has been favorable for both potholes and sinkholes: cold followed by rain. Both tend to form in similar areas.
“It might be a low spot. It might be a weaker spot in the pavement," he said. "Maybe those are areas that are more vulnerable to potholes, but they’re also more vulnerable to collecting water.”
Santi said the water can originate from precipitation or from broken waterlines that are often found under roads. Even in the case of broken waterlines, weather can still sometimes be the root cause with a cycle of freezing and thawing.
Sinkholes can form when water dissolves the soil, but in many cases the water physically erodes.
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