LOUISVILLE, Ky. — MSD crews are working on three different cave-ins around downtown. While many will be completely fixed by this week, these issues don't just cause a pain for traffic in the area.
"In the downtown area we have as you said, very old infrastructure, it can be 75-years-old or even older. We have some dating back to the late 1860's," said Sheryl Lauder who's the Communications Program Manager for Louisville MSD.
The sewage systems are aging while our city is just getting bigger. "Because people come along and they build new things and they want to connect to the sewer line so they're poking new holes in it all over the place," said Lauder.
There's even a portion under Broadway that's made of brick, that was made in 1867. "All you have to have is one brick that gets out of place and then that water starts carrying things away and the others follow," said Lauder.
The sewers are maintained every ten years. There's a lot to go through, the city has 3,300 miles of sewer pipe.
On seventh and Main streets, they found three areas that were broken.
The hole starts off pretty small, essentially if you're driving by it, you probably wouldn't notice anything, you'd think it was a dent. Underneath, that void will get bigger and bigger if it's not getting fixed and eventually the road will collapse.
Unfortunately our infrastructure needs more than maintenance, these cave-ins are becoming more common. So does that mean we should be afraid of one day driving into a hole in the ground?
"We haven't had that happen, well, there was one instance where the wheel of a trolley fell into a hole but most of the time they get reported to us in time, before anything catastrophic can happen. But unsupported pavement is not a good thing to have," said Lauder.
There is an overall plan to fix all infrastructure and that comes with a 4.3 billion dollar price tag. No word on when that would happen. For now, it's important to keep your eyes peeled and if you see anything, call 311 or MSD directly.
►Contact reporter Kristin Goodwillie at KGoodwillie@whas11.com and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.