Harlan Kirgan
Potholes on West Maple Avenue are common, but there was something about the hole between 4th and 5th streets that caught City Marshal Terry Darbonne’s eye Tuesday afternoon.
“For some reason out of the corner of my eye ... it looked like a hole that was bigger than normal,” he said.
Darbonne drove his unit around the block and stopped near the hole.
“I saw the water underneath the roadway, which I figured that was odd because it hadn’t rained,” he said.
When he walked by the hole it started crumbling in, he said.
There were two 18-wheelers and a school bus behind him, he said.
“After looking at how much it was crumbling, I thought about what would happen if a school bus had hit it,” Darbonne said.
“It probably would have toppled the bus because of how extremely brittle the ground was around it,” he said.
Darbonne contacted Paul Carrier, street superintendent, to report the hole even though it is state highway.
Darbonne spotted the hole at about 3:05 p.m. and by about 4:15 p.m. the state Department of Transportation and Development sent out a notice of an emergency closure of the road.
The detour is La. 13, U.S. 190 and La. 757.
Mayor Scott Fontenot said crews began digging at the hole Wednesday morning.
“If it is any indication of what’s happened in the past in this area of the old part of town it’s probably and old (sewer) line that’s deteriorated over time,” he said.
Not too long ago a jogger discovered a similar washout on Park Avenue between 4th and 5th streets that was created by a sewer line, he said.
The probable Maple Avenue fix will be to be run a liner in the sewer pipe, he said.
“This shouldn’t have the road closed too much longer,” Fontenot said.
The repair will probably take about a couple of days “unless we run into something major,” Fontenot said.
The repair is expected to cost about $40,000 based on previous experience, he said.
Darbonne said he measured the hole and measured 2.5 feet by 1.5 feet, and at least 2 to 3 feet deep.
A recent state transportation department study found about 10,000 day travel the road, he said.
“It’s very fortunate nobody hit that,” he said.