After multiple sinkholes opened up on Osage Road, the Walton Township has been doing what it can to find out how to move forward with fixing the problem. Mike Spangler, the Walton Township trustee, said he’s working with a Wichita contractor to find out how deep the sinkhole is. Spangler said they completed a core drill a couple weeks ago that drilled down 30 feet into the Earth to complete a check of the ground structure underneath the sinkhole. He is still waiting on the results of the core drilling. Kelsea Abney, the township clerk, is also working on the issue. Abney reached out to the University of Kansas’s geological survey. “They specialize in everything geological,” Abney said. Abney got in touch with Rick Miller, who is a sinkhole expert with 40 years of experience dealing with them. Abney said she’s waiting to hear what the next steps will be but was told they needed to know how much solid soil is under the road. Walton initially came to Harvey County for help with the sinkhole at the end of May, saying they weren’t sure how to deal with it. At the time, they were just dealing with one. Since then, another sinkhole appeared on the other side of the road. The sinkholes are on Osage Road, which is the road between Harvey and Marion counties, making it the township’s responsibility to manage. According to past reporting from Harvey County Now, the road was closed temporarily at the beginning of June. It has stayed closed ever since. Spangler last visited the sinkhole a couple weeks ago. “It’s still growing,” Spangler said.
Source: Harvey County Now
