A stone arch has collapsed in Pottsville in the area of Fifth and Arch streets.
Tom Whitaker, Pottsville street department supervisor, said Tuesday he received a call from a dispatcher at city hall about the sewer and stormwater arch collapse about 9 a.m. Feb. 17. He believes someone who lives nearby reported the hole to city hall. Street department workers went out within 15 minutes to put up an orange construction fence and barricades.
He said the Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority and Dallago’s Backhoe Service, Minersville, were on site Thursday to place concrete barriers for safety.
Whitaker did not know when the arch will be fixed but said it might be later this week. He said they are waiting on a concrete pipe for the job.
Those walking by the parking lot area can see part of a stone arch. Water is running underneath the arch. Construction equipment is nearby.
City Administrator Tom Palamar said Tuesday the arch is “older than 100 years old.”
He said it might have been there since the city was built. He does not know the exact reason for the collapse.
“I believe it was just age,” along with possibly the result of the winter conditions of the freeze and thaw cycle, he said.
He said Dallago’s was doing the work, but he didn’t have a time frame.
Timothy Yingling, the executive director of the sewer authority, did not respond Tuesday to an email for comment. A phone message left at his home was also not returned.
The arch collapse at Fifth and Arch streets was not the only recent arch collapse in the city.
Others include a collapse in the 100 block of Howard Avenue in August 2014, which was caused by a water main leak, the collapse of a brick arch in April 2014 in the 300 block of division street and in a stone arch tunnel on the far southwest side of the parking lot at Kentucky Fried Chicken in August 2013, according to The Republican Herald archives.