Kiwanis Drive sinkhole repair nears completion

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WNKY) — Work is nearing completion on the recurring sinkhole at Kiwanis Court and Shawnee Way, where crews are compacting the gravel base before the final road work.

The project is expected to wrap up this week.

Bowling Green is using a $140,000 state grant to pay for the repair after earlier work failed to hold and the sinkhole spread beneath the roadway. City officials also say they now have a likely explanation for why the problem kept returning.

Grant expected to cover full repair

The money comes from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s highway contingency fund, which is used for projects requiring immediate stabilization.

Bowling Green Grants Coordinator Jake Moore said Public Works first addressed the sinkhole earlier this spring. Those repairs did not last, and the problem eventually reached beneath the road, creating concerns for motorists.

The city then applied for state funding to help cover the cost.

“So this should cover the entire repair. Like I said, these are very expensive, ordeals,” Moore said. “And the city has a finite amount of money to put towards a single budget every year. So this is, this is a way to boost our available funds just because we know that this is not going to be the last sinkhole that we encounter for the rest of the year.”

Sinkhole repairs can involve more than filling a hole. Moore said crews may also have to relocate utilities, close roads and rebuild sections of pavement.

That can quickly add to the cost.

He said outside funding helps take some of that pressure off the city’s general fund and leaves more local money available for the next repair.

Bowling Green has now used the state fund three times for roadway-related sinkhole projects, according to Moore. The program has a rolling application period, meaning the city can apply when a qualifying problem develops instead of waiting for a set funding cycle.

Public Works points to likely cause

City Geologist Nick Lawhon said investigators believe the recurring sinkhole is tied to a stormwater injection well at the intersection.

“So what we believe happened is that the soil migrated into the borehole for the drilled stormwater injection well that was present at that intersection,” Lawhon said.

Lawhon said the well was likely installed around the time the road was built or shortly afterward, possibly in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Stormwater injection wells move water underground, where it can enter natural drainage passages.

During earlier repair work, crews also found water containing trace amounts of chlorine. Lawhon said that discovery does not appear to be connected to the cause of the sinkhole.

“Our current stance is that that sinkhole was very likely caused by the presence of that storm water injection well, and that the presence of chlorine was incidental to repair, probably caused by it rather than the sinkhole being caused by water from the drinking water line,” Lawhon said.

A common part of Bowling Green’s drainage system

About 2,000 stormwater injection wells are documented across Bowling Green, according to Lawhon.

Public Works has reviewed more than 600 sinkholes and found roughly half occurred at one of those wells.

The wells are typically drilled into bedrock to connect with cave passages, smaller conduits or fractured rock. That gives stormwater a path into the groundwater system.

At Kiwanis Court and Shawnee Way, the focus has now shifted to finishing the roadway.

Crews were rolling and vibrating the gravel Monday, packing the base tightly before the road above is completed. The project is expected to be finished this week.