The hole is about a foot wide sinkhole and is “several feet deep in the travel lane of Harrell Road,” said Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Darragh Frye.
The transportation agency assesses the situation and evaluates repair plans, adds Frye. VDOT is meeting with the Stafford County public utilities department later today to finalize and execute plans to fix the hole.
Crews will have to wait for the rain to subside before beginning repair work. VDOT’s Fredericksburg Residency Engineer, Kyle Bates, estimates pavement repair will begin tomorrow, and the street to reopen tomorrow night.
Harrell Road is notorious for its low-hanging rail bridge that carries trains over the two-lane road. Truck drivers, often using GPS, strike the bridge 9-foot-tall bridge.
The sinkhole is not far from the bridge.
One person was injured in November 2021 when the bridge shredded the roof of a U-Haul truck. Meanwhile, in December 2021, a portion of the road was closed at the bridge when a part of a drain below the bridge collapsed into the street.
