Sinkhole-damaged Plant City roads should be fixed in a month or less

A Land O' Lakes company is expected to complete sinkhole repairs to five roads and an intersection in a month or less.

City commissioners voted Monday to pay Earth Tech, LLC about $1.16 million to fill in sinkholes at 3804 Creek Way Court, Kipling Court, Concord Way, 3341 Silvermoon Drive, 3221 Azalea Blossom Drive and the Mobley and Risk streets intersection.

The repairs should be completed in two weeks to a month, depending on conditions that crews encounter, City Manager Greg Horwedel said

The commissioners awarded a separate, $193,000 contract to Earth Tech to shore up ground around a 500,000-gallon water tank off National Guard Drive that is threatened by unstable soil including a sinkhole. The work should be completed by June 21 at the tank, which has been drained as a safety precaution.

The city will cover most of the cost of the sinkhole repairs by transferring about $934,000 out of the city road resurfacing fund.

Horwedel said it was fortunate the city had the money available, but it will be spent on "sinkhole damaged areas, rather than the miles of roadway (resurfacing) they had planned for that money."

The sinkhole repair bill for the city and other government agencies in Eastern Hillsborough County has been mounting ever since early January, when growers pumped millions of gallons of water to protect tender crops from record cold and sinkholes started to appear.

The city recently spent $187,000 to repair a section of Timberlane Drive, a major road through Walden Lake subdivision. It may have to pay another $224,000 to repair a section of Alexander Street south of Interstate 4, although officials hope the state will reimburse the expense. Alexander has been temporarily repaired with steel plates that span a depression.

Another sinkhole opened April 16 at Euclid Drive and State Road 574 but that is being repaired at the Florida Department of Transportation's expense. Repairs should be complete by the end of the week.