RCOC Monitors Small Sinkhole on Predmore Road

An orange barrel on the north side of Predmore Road marks where part of the gravel road caved into the underlying culvert the other day. The hole is filled in now, but the job is not done yet.

"There was a hole in the culvert, which caused the road right above it to collapse into the hole," said Craig Bryson, public information officer for the Road Commission for Oakland County. "Our guys went out and filled in the hole with gravel, but because the ground is still wet and soft and not stable in that area, they didn't want cars driving on it till the frost is gone and the ground stabilizes a little more."

The sinkhole occurred west of Lake George Road, where the Graham Lakes in the Bald Mountain Recreation Area drain through the culvert under the road.

The area north of Predmore Road, which is part of the Bald Mountain Recreation Area, is flooded right now, and the standing water on the north side of the road was high enough to cover the top of the culvert as of Friday afternoon.

"The problem right now is the ground is not completely thawed, so the water can't drain into the ground," said Bryson. "Every spring when the snow melts before the ground thaws out, we have a lot of standing water."

Bryson said the RCOC has to wait for the ground to thaw and stabilize before workers can permanently fix the problem.

"Ultimately, we'll probably have to replace the culvert, or repair it at the least," Bryson said. "Unfortunately, there's a waiting list of those types of jobs we need to do."

Luckily, replacing the culvert is a minor job and only takes "about a day," he said.

Until then, the orange RCOC barrel will remain on the north side of Predmore Road to remind residents to keep to the south side of the road.