King of Prussia road closure expected to remain through weekend amid sinkhole repairs

KING OF PRUSSIA — Work continued Friday to repair a sinkhole that closed a stretch of U.S. Route 202 in King of Prussia, Upper Merion Township, according to Pennsylvania transportation officials.

The roughly 10-by-12-foot sinkhole shut down the northbound lanes of U.S. Route 202, also known as Dekalb Pike, between Henderson Road and Saulin Boulevard. The closure is expected to continue through the weekend following complications found during the repair process, according to PennDOT Deputy Communication Director Brad Rudolph.

“This is highly impactful. So we’re hustling as quick as we can. That is not lost on us that it’s right before Christmas, and it’s right by the King of Prussia Mall,” Rudolph told MediaNews Group.

The incident initially occurred “sometime overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning” when reports of low pressure in the area prompted crews from PA American Water to survey the area. Crews later found the sinkhole, just feet away from the location of another sinkhole that formed this summer.

“Our maintenance crews were the ones that did the flowable fill and put up the signs, close the roadway. We’ll have one of our contractors do the accelerated concrete part of it,” Rudolph said, noting the transportation agency also received assistance from the Upper Merion Township Police Department.

“We’ve done this before, so we were able to mobilize pretty quickly,” Rudolph said. “We’re fortunate enough to have quick responding partners here.”

Repairs began around 2 p.m. Thursday when crews “filled the hole” with a “flowable fill” and “accelerated concrete” followed on Friday. However, Rudolph said in a statement late Friday afternoon that “during the application of the accelerated concrete this afternoon, PennDOT’s contractor heard sounds of moving (or) rushing water below ground.”

Rudolph added that PA American water crews had to again investigate and “rip up the fill and concrete we had put down” in order to find the leakage. The area’s southbound lanes aren’t expected to be impacted.

Weather has impacted repairs to the sinkhole before. In July, the heat delayed the reopening of U.S. Route 202. Rudolph acknowledged the temperate weather playing a role, that it being a “moderate day and there’s no precipitation that’s beneficial for sure.”

Instances of sinkholes are seemingly becoming more common throughout the region as Rudolph pointed out similar situations on major thoroughfares in Philadelphia, as well as Montgomery and Chester counties. To that end, the state transportation department is looking to conduct a “geophysical investigation for this area.”

“Obviously, this stretch is susceptible to sinkholes. It’s no secret … the limestone is not ideal to build on top of these roadways,” he said. “We’ve seen them in many different areas of this one, which just happens to be where it just happened in July. So they’re going to use certain methods including ground penetrating radar … to look for additional voids to see if there’s anything else we can do or uncover.”

“There was rain recently, we got a lot of it, (but) you can’t necessarily pinpoint it to that,” Rudolph said. “It couldn’t have been helpful but it’s not necessarily the, the root cause of it. There’s something underground and we need to find out where that water is coming in.”