Bankrupt Harrisburg, Pa., Can’t Fix 41 Sinkholes Plaguing Streets

HERE By Philip Caulfield / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, February 1, 2013, 3:16 PM

Pennsylvania’s state capital is suffering from a rash of monster sinkholes, but city officials are too broke to do anything about it.

Loose soil and leaky, century-old underground water pipes are to blame for the municipal nightmare, which came to a head on the New Year’s Eve when a 50-foot sinkhole yawned open along Fourth Street, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In addition to the sinkholes, the city has also been unable to fix a sewage treatment plant that is dumping toxic waste into the Susquehanna River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic, the Journal reported.

Several of the sinkholes, including the one that opened on Fourth Street on New Year’s Eve, have forced residents to evacuate their homes. Some lost water, gas and sewer services.

Sharaun Davis, 33, who lives near the sinkhole, told local newspaper The Patriot News that she had to relocate her family to a hotel because construction on the hole was causing her home to shake.

“I’m hearing literally the dry wall cracking,” she told the newspaper earlier this month. “We’ve had to change our whole life.”

One engineer said it would cost $25 million to fix all of the sinkholes, the Journal reported. Some of them have been patched temporarily.

Local lawmakers have called on Gov. Tom Corbett to foot a portion of the bill using state funds.