Sinkhole Watch | Week Seven: Can you believe it? Repairs are finally underway

Work is finally underway to repair the sinkhole at the Morganton Post Office.

Early Friday morning, workers from Hilton Construction and Development Inc. of Granite Falls, a full-service commercial site work and grading contractor, were on site with heavy equipment, unloading massive steel beams beside the sinkhole.

The activity comes a week after representatives with the U.S. Postal Service met with Morganton City officials and the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Morganton Mayor Ronnie Thompson, enroute back to town Friday morning after attending a meeting on the coast, said he was surprised and pleased that work has begun.

“It appears that work and progress is being made on our infamous sinkhole,” said Thompson. “The citizens of Morganton will be pleased to see work being started. I am surprised that it has started, but again, the public has raised concerns, along with The Paper, and we’re pleased that the community has gathered together, with the support of The Paper, to work as hard as possible to get the repairs started.” 

Thompson said the postal service likely has no obligation to release a timeline for repairs to the city, but said he’d appreciate being fully updated on the progress.

“I wish they would share it with us, so that we could continue to monitor our sewer (pipe) in that vicinity,” said Thompson. “We’re not only concerned with the hole. We’re concerned with the complete infrastructure under the bypass, because that’s a major part of our concern; that things are going to be fixed so the bypass will be stable.”

Last week’s meeting was closed to the public, but the USPS was encouraged by the results and released a statement earlier in the week.

“The meeting last week was a significant step forward toward completing this project and we look forward to repairing the sinkhole,” said Postal Service spokesman Philip Bogenburger on Monday. “We have received numerous messages from the community about the project and we are appreciative of our customers’ support.”

The sinkhole has been a near-constant topic of discussion locally since it began to open up in 2020.

It’s located on Postal Service property, so the responsibility for repairs belongs to the USPS. A statement released July 12 said repairs would begin “soon,” and the process should be completed this fall.

The hole developed more than three years ago when a brick catch basin near the post office loading dock failed, according to Tim Biddix, who once ran a car wash on an adjacent property.

The sinkhole expanded over time, forcing Biddix to permanently close his car wash. With each heavy rain, the chasm has swallowed more and more of the parking lot and now poses an ominous threat, especially to the environment.

If the sinkhole were to expand much more, it could damage the city’s pressurized sewer pipe, which runs alongside the property. A breach in the pipe might be disastrous, since raw sewage would pour into the nearby Catawba River. 

Two major roads, North Green Street (US 181) and Sanford Drive (US 64 Bypass) intersect at the post office, and could be damaged as well.

Marty Queen is the senior reporter for The Paper. He may be reached at 828-445-8595 or at marty@thepaper.media.