06/17/2002

Reported by Glenn Farley, KING 5 News

WOODINVILLE, Wash. - It's right there, along the edge of N.E. 172nd Street. The hole is a real neighborhood curiosity.

“So I'm fascinated, I have no idea why it's there or what it is, but it's interesting to know,” says Keith Omodt.

Monday morning, the fire department put a rope down the hole.

“We think we've gone down 1000 feet with rope, and haven't found a bottom, but we're not positive,” says King County road supervisor, Ross Pettit.

The man who lives next door says there's been a depression there for years, until somebody parked a garbage truck on top of it last week, breaking a smaller hole in the asphalt the size of a baseball.

KING The sinkhole is about 230 feet deep.

Clearly something’s going to have to be done. They could plug it up, or fill it up with concrete, but how many cubic yards of concrete could it take.

Late Monday afternoon, a state geologist got to the bottom of one question, finding the hole is 234 feet deep. There's speculation by the experts it might be a dry hole from a company drilling for natural gas back in the 1930s.

“I'm glad they didn't break through sooner, because there are a lot of kids riding bikes around here,” says Omodt.

For now, King County road crews plan to cover it with a heavy steel plate.

Crews plan to be out again Tuesday to try and learn more about the hole's origins and how to fill it in.