Thursday night a sinkhole was discovered on 12 Corners Road east of Pea Ridge, forcing the Benton County Road Department to close the road late Thursday night (May 16)
Officials say rain last week caused a culvert beneath the road to break.
The water caused a hole underneath the road about six feet deep and almost 16 feet long.
“The asphalt is four inches deep that's what the cars were driving on. You could put an automobile underneath this asphalt and no one would ever know that it was there,” said Jack Brown, Benton County Road Department Superintendent.
A second sinkhole, 10 feet deep on Woods Lodge Road near Garfield discovered last week, crews started working to repair that Wednesday (May 15)
In the same area, on North Old Wire Road crews replaced drainage pipes for the second time in just a matter of weeks.
“After the first flooding event these two smaller pipes were put in, with the second flooding event it washed them out and because of that we’re going to go with a larger pipe this time,” said Robert McGowen, Benton County Emergency Management Director.
“We are doubling the size on this road right here, we put in an 18 and putting a 36 to prevent it from happening again, that`s what we want to do so we don`t have to come back and do it again,” added Brown.
Snavely Bridge, near XNA is also still closed, the road sustained major damage as intense rains washed away more than 350 yards of the road, work is expected to begin next week.
More than 60 sites damaged from last week’s rain, on top of the 127 sites damaged mid-April.
“We believe we will exceed a million dollars with the fact that we believe that there`s about $100,000 in damage on the Snavley Bridge site,” said McGowen.
Now, the county is making sure something like this doesn`t happen again.
“Were making a concerted effort to go back and repair this damage correctly and properly to avoid future damage,” said McGowen.
Benton County Emergency Management officials are taking pictures and documenting the sites, the state is expected to survey the damage next week.