Trash truck narrowly misses gas line exposed by sinkhole

Jasper — City officials are breathing a sigh of relief after a trash truck narrowly missed smashing a 2-inch gas line near Jasper Desk when it broke through a sinkhole this afternoon.

According to City Engineer Chad Hurm, the driver of an Advanced Disposal trash truck had parked his truck near the back of the Jasper Desk factory building at 502 E. 6th St. east of Anderson Street. When he got back into the truck, he noticed the front passenger side was slowly sinking. The truck stopped sinking when the frame settled on the asphalt parking lot.

When the driver got out, he found that the truck had pushed through the asphalt parking lot and exposed an oval-shaped cavity about 6 feet deep and about 8 by 10 feet in width.

The tire of the truck was directly above a 2-inch gas line feeding the boilers to the furniture plant.

Upon investigation, the city engineer and street department determined that a storm sewer drain line had failed and the rushing water had likely caused the sinkhole to form as it washed away the sediment and fill around the lines. Hurm couldn’t say for sure how long the storm sewer drain had failed, but he acknowledge the inordinate amount of heavy rains recently certainly exacerbated the problem.

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Crews will repair the storm sewer drain after they inspect it for any other failures. The cavity formed about 100 yards west of where the drain empties into a culvert that leads to Patoka River.

According the Hurm, the gas department will inspect the gas line for any damage.

A tow truck was able to lift the trash truck’s front end enough that it could back away from the hole.