In early January of this year, Florida experienced some unusually cold temperatures that forced Plant City area strawberry farmers to pump extra groundwater to try to protect their crops. Over the course of about 11 days, the groundwater table in areas of Plant City was lowered by as much as 60-ft.

Almost immediately as many as 80 sinkholes began opening up around that region. Including ones that jeopardized a 500,000-gallon water tower, several that shut down an elementary school and numerous ones that shut down roads and highways and affected individual property owners. Around 20 local homeowners were left homeless after sinkholes left their house uninhabitable. For comparison, based on data from Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Sinkhole Database for the period of 1998 to 2008 (the last year for which data is available), 77 sinkholes were reported to have opened up in Polk, Pasco and Hillsborough counties combined.

Local officials are seeking help from the State and FEMA to cover the estimated $3 million in damages.  That figure is double what Plant City received from FEMA for the particularly bad 2004 hurricane season. And that dollar amount does not include what individual homeowners and property owners will be seeking from their insurance carriers. (Photos by Tampa Bay Online)

Read on for maps of Plant City sinkhole locations and more information.

[…]

A large 40 foot wide by 40 foot deep sinkhole opened up just outside the endzone of Austin Peay State University’s Governors Stadium in Tennessee. The stadium is currently undergoing upgrades for next year’s football season. Sinkholes are not unexpected on Austin Peay campus, and the video below shows one example of how the University has actually incorporated the remediated sinkholes into the landscaping. Representatives from the University and the contractor expect the sinkhole will be filled without any problems.

[Updated 1/19/2015] Click through for the video since I can’t figure out how to turn off the auto-play on this one. [/Updated]

[…]

The Bertha TBM creating the Alaska Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel and the Seattle Tunnel Partners JV just can’t seem to catch a break. After being stopped for nearly 2 years to replace the entire cutterhead […]