Godstone sinkhole filled eight months on – but Surrey villagers face yet more disruption
Eight months after a sudden sinkhole appeared in Godstone, residents are facing further disruption.
Although the 20-metre hole has now been filled, Surrey County Council plans to bore holes in the High Street, where residents were evacuated in February before the road was fully reopened.
Stabilization works need to be carried out to prevent the problem from happening again after an investigation confirmed a network of Victorian sand mining tunnels existed 10 meters below the surface.
The local authority is also awaiting the results of tests on the water main to decide whether an unstable tunnel caused the pipe to break or a leaking mains caused the tunnel to collapse.
Some 30 homes were evacuated after the sinkhole swallowed at least one garden. While most residents returned to their homes in late March, the last homeowner was only able to return at the end of September.
Local people told Times While they waited for their lives to return to normal at Godstone, they felt the work was “not being treated as a priority”.
Bren Davis, 88, added that he monitored repair work for months after refusing to leave his home during the incident, which left him without water for 10 days.
Hare and Hounds pub owner Mark Cullinan told the publication he had lost £50,000 since the collapse in February.
“We are 40 percent behind last year,” he said.[The authorities] I really don’t care what they affect and no one has taken responsibility for it. “This is absolutely ridiculous.”
A Surrey County Council spokesman said: “This work has been planned for some time to determine the extent of the mine and carry out stabilization works on the ground below.”
The council is preparing to drill holes to determine the size of the mine and carry out stabilization works, which may include the use of aerated concrete as a filler.
It has previously stated that the road is not expected to reopen until at least December due to the major works required.
The council’s infrastructure manager, Lloyd Allen, who is overseeing the repairs, told the BBC in August that the hole may have been caused by a burst water main.
“We don’t know what caused the water main burst,” Mr. Allen said. “That’s why we started our investigation by talking to people who lived in the area and knew about the mines. It took several months to find them, using many different techniques.”
He said that the engineers who first arrived at the scene after the hole appeared noticed that the water had disappeared underground; This is an unusually large amount of water that will naturally be absorbed into the sand.
Engineers plan tunnels by drilling holes into sandstone; This process, he said, is made more complicated by underground cables and pipes.
Mr Allen added: “We’ve got to make sure this thing doesn’t collapse again when we’re done because this is a busy road that normally has big trucks on it.”
Residents said they had known about the Victorian-era network of sand mining tunnels for decades.
