The hole that closed an eastbound lane of Highway 98 in front of the Boardwalk on Monday night was caused by the collapse of a cap over a punctured county drainage pipe, Okaloosa County Deputy Administrator Jason Autrey told county commissioners Tuesday morning.
Autrey said a permanent repair is planned.
“We know what that issue is and we’re going to get it resolved,” Autrey said. “It’s just a matter of timing it.”
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office issued a traffic notice at 9:02 p.m. Monday that said, per the Florida Highway Patrol, one eastbound lane of Miracle Strip in front of the Boardwalk was closed because of a sinkhole. Both westbound lanes were open, according to the notice.
The topic came up Tuesday morning as the Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners discussed its draft legislative priorities. Commissioner Sherri Cox asked whether the county could seek legislative dollars to study the area further. She said she expects increased impact “with the pending storm, no matter what that storm looks like.”
Autrey said a drainage culvert runs underneath Pier Road. When a utility line was installed, the pipeline was punctured and a cap was placed over top of it, he said.
- “The water caused that cap to collapse,” Autrey said. “Road maintenance has put it back together. They’ve got the pipe in order to make that permanent repair.”
He said the timing of the work is “a little tricky along 98.”
Autrey told commissioners the pipe is a county pipe located at the entrance of Pier Road. He said staff went out as soon as the county learned of the hole, protected it and covered it up. Staff checked it again Tuesday morning and are monitoring it and working with the contractor, he said.
Standing water on U.S. Highway 98 is a separate issue
Autrey said the hole and the standing water on U.S. Highway 98 are “distinctly separate” issues.
The water standing on the roadway was because of the construction site, he said. He later described it as a combination of the weather that came in, the construction that is underway with the new bridge and the conditions on site.
The Florida Department of Transportation has three pumps at the site, according to Autrey.
- “They’re working on that,” Autrey said. “We’re going to continue coordination with them, trying to get ahead of it this weekend.”
Forecasters are watching a disturbance in the southwest Gulf that is expected to become a tropical depression and turn north or northeast toward the northern Gulf Coast later this week. Okaloosa County will offer sandbags beginning at 4 p.m. Wednesday at locations in Fort Walton Beach and Crestview ahead of any potential extended rain this weekend.
Autrey said he received a text at 7 a.m. Tuesday from the department’s operations manager and that the county is coordinating with the state on both issues.
Okaloosa County to offer sandbags as tropical development likely in Gulf
Okaloosa County will offer sandbags at two locations beginning Wednesday at 4 p.m. as a tropical system in the Gulf could bring more heavy rain.
‘Sinkhole’ has a technical definition
Autrey said the term sinkhole “is a little interesting to use” for what happened at Pier Road.
Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel, who said she addressed the issue with Autrey on Tuesday morning, asked him to explain the difference to residents.
Autrey said sinkholes form in areas with limestone formations. Those formations exist locally but are substantially deeper than in the central and southern portions of the state, he said.
From the High Springs and Gainesville area to the south, a sinkhole is a collapse that is hundreds of feet in diameter, according to Autrey. He said what occurs locally is called vertical erosion, which happens when something punctures a hole underneath the surface.
- “It could be a water line that leaks, or in this case, it was a culvert that had just a bridge of limestone over top of it, and the water saturated and it collapsed,” Autrey said.
The distinction does not change the hazard for drivers, he said.
“A sinkhole has a technical definition that is very different than what we thankfully see up here in the Panhandle,” Autrey said. “However, it makes no difference when you have a hole, pothole, sinkhole, or otherwise in the roadway and you drive across it.”
Not added to legislative priorities
Chairman Trey Goodwin asked Autrey whether the item needed to be added to the county’s legislative priorities.
“I don’t know that I’d put it as a legislative priority,” Autrey said. “That’s one of those kinda operational things that we work on as they unfortunately pop up.”
Cox said she hopes the repair will be a permanent solution.
“Mr. Autrey’s the engineer here, so I’m going to defer to his leadership on that,” Cox said
