I-80 eastbound leads via a short drive on I-95 to the George Washington Bridge.
Interstate 80, a major east-west thoroughfare in New Jersey, has been closed near Exit 34 in Wharton in Morris County, New Jersey for over one week after a sinkhole progressed to a full road collapse.
The highway runs for 68.5 miles (110.3 km) in New Jersey from the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge at the Pennsylvania border to the eastern terminus of the interchange with the New Jersey Turnpike – at that juncture also carrying the Interstate 95 designation – in Teaneck, Bergen County. I-95 then continues from the end of I-80 to the George Washington Bridge, the world’s busiest motor-vehicle bridge and one that carries over 100 million vehicles per year. It is a major travel corridor within the New York metropolitan area and has a total of 14 lanes, seven in each direction, over two decks.
The New Jersey Department of Transportation identifies I-80 within the state as the Christopher Columbus Higway.
The closure followed a similar one last December.
Both sinkholes appear to have been caused by a dense conccenteration of abandonedd mines according to according to an official New Jersey state geology information map. Some of these mines date back to the start of the 19th century.
“Northern New Jersey had tremendous numbers of mines,” Bill Kroth, a geotechnical engineer and president of the Sterling Hill Mining Museum, told WPIX-TV news. “We have copper mines in Bergen County. Passaic County [and] Sussex County had iron mines.”
When a mine is closed, the process of reclamation, which is mandatory for the owner and which includes covering up mine entrances, replanting grass and trees, and testing surrounding water, soil, and air for contaminants, restores the site to its original state.
Many aabandoned mines that were not properly filled and sealed shut. The area has a high concentraiton of abandoned mines. Meanwhile, the Sterling Hill Mine in Ogdensburg was one of two prominent zinc mines in New Jersey. Sterling Hill was the last active underground mine in the state.
That includes the old Mount Pleasant iron mine, which operated about 25’-50’ (7.6 m-15.25 m) away from the sinkhole in Wharton, according to state records.
Last week, State Senator Anthony Bucco told reporters was not going to be “an easy fix” after viewing the damage, and it appears that his finding was quite prescient.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
