Residents’ concerns over developing sinkholes in Mt. Airy were met with swift action by the Habersham County Road Department this week. A road crew filled several holes on Lunsford Street Thursday afternoon and two more on adjacent Harris Street.
Habersham County Road Superintendent John Stamey says the holes were caused by rotting tree stumps. “People built the road and they left them in there and they started rotting out and sinking.” he says.
Stamey says crews removed the old stumps, packed the holes with rock and gravel then patched them with cement. “That’s what we found in a lot of places, especially after a dry period – stump holes in the road. There’s another little place there we’ll fill Monday.”
Stamey says back when the subdivision was built thirty or forty years ago regulations weren’t as tight. He says building and planning codes in Habersham are more strict now. “They don’t just let them go in and clear a road out in the woods,” he explains. “They’ve got to have six inches of base, packed good.”
Residents first noticed the problem two weeks ago. They expressed growing concern as the holes got bigger.
Read Sinkholes Developing on Street in Mt. Airy
