Pickup Truck Swallowed by 20 Foot Sinkhole

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"A day after a massive sinkhole opened at a busy West Beaumont intersection and swallowed a pickup truck, city crews were working to close it up while the driver searched for a replacement vehicle.

The driver’s Ford F-150 plunged into the watery sinkhole at about 2:15 a.m. Sunday where Central Drive meets East Drive. He managed to get out. The driver’s nephew said his uncle bought the pickup at the end of June, only about a month earlier.

The large sinkhole filled with several feet of water gushing from a broken main. Workers cut off the flow while police blocked the road to keep other drivers away. Crews then worked to get the pickup out of the sinkhole, calling on Spanky’s Wrecker. The wrecker crew tied chains to the rear of the pickup and hoisted it out, taking care not to tear up the pavement surrounding the sinkhole. The crew finished the job about six hours later.

On Monday, work was underway to close the sinkhole, though officials said it could take some time. City crews have already repaired the damaged water infrastructure underground, but the road remained closed as streets and drainage crews rebuild what’s underneath.

Beaumont Water Utilities Director Mike Harris said the city is still working to determine what caused the collapse.

“We don't exactly know the exact cause because of the road falling in and damaging all the infrastructure,” Harris said.

Harris said signs point to a water main break that washed out the storm sewer underground.

“We're just theorizing that. That's probably the case of what happened, which, you know, more than likely that is what happened on it,” Harris said.

Unlike most water main breaks, Harris said this one went undetected until the sinkhole swallowed the truck early Sunday morning. But he said the city’s aging infrastructure was not necessarily to blame in this case.

“This particular case here, you know, the area, it's PVC pipe. So it's fairly, you know, good infrastructure. So you wouldn't expect a water leak in that area,” Harris said.

Harris said recent swings between heavy rain and extreme heat may have played a major role.

“When you get a lot of rain. The ground soils, the soil will actually soil. Then when we start drying out, like what we had then in the last couple of weeks, when we get these hot temperatures and really drying out, it actually caused the soil to start shrinking,” Harris said.

That ground shift can create cracks in the ground or a 10-foot-deep sinkhole.

Harris said the city is now working on a storm cleaning project to check for additional leaks in the storm drain.

“Once we do, of course, you know, detect these leaks, we'll get out and get these fixed because we don't want a situation like this occurring again,” Harris said.

As the city works to prevent another sinkhole, Harris said there is no specific timeline for when drivers will be able to use East Drive again. City officials said they had no recent reports of water leaks before the sinkhole opened."