For about four years, a sinkhole in Fernbrook has been widening and deepening, consuming dirt, grass and brick pavers surrounding a flowerbed between two houses.
“Everytime it rains, it gets worse,” said Louann Fultz, who rents a home on Governor Yeardley Lane, and whose driveway is next to the sinkhole.
Between two homes in the James City County neighborhood off Greensprings Road is the sinkhole. Steven Hall, who lives in the other home bordering the sinkhole, said he’s spent the past four years not knowing what was going to happen to fix it.
“Nobody’s taken responsibility for it,” Hall said, explaining he has contacted Williamsburg-area state representatives, the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Fernbrook Homeowners Association and the county’s Board of Supervisors.
Letters to the board and Sen. Tommy Norment (R-Williamsburg) went unanswered, the HOA won’t claim responsibility, and VDOT sent eight men to fill a hole about a foot in diameter and said the larger sinkhole was too far from the road to be its responsibility, Hall said.
About a year ago, Hall said HOA board members told him the HOA’s attorney was working on getting someone in to fix the hole and would send a letter to Hall; that letter never came.
But finally, it looks like something may be done.
Last week, Fultz said workers came in and put stakes with orange tape around the hole. On Monday, a fence went up around it.
“My grandkids call this the boogeyman hole and now they say, ‘You’ve got a cage for the boogeyman,’” Hall said.
James City County General Services Director John Horne said the county attorney’s office is working with the Fernbrook HOA attorney to establish an agreement to allow the county to fix the pipes causing the sinkhole without assuming ownership of the pipes. The pipes are legally the HOA’s responsibility.
The pipes are buried underground and move stormwater from roads and yards into a basin. The pipes were improperly installed and are damaged so soil is leaking into the pipes, Horne said. When the soil moves into the pipes, it compromises the stability of the surface soil and causes it to collapse. Anything sitting on the surface soil is then put at risk.
The large sinkhole, while close to Fultz’s driveway, doesn’t seem to be compromising its stability currently.
Horne said there are multiple sinkholes in the neighborhood, some of which can be seen on the property line between Hall’s and Fultz’s homes: The other sinkholes look like indentations in the soil running to a shed at the back of Fultz’s property. The sinkholes are at varying depths, and Horne said the county is only aware of two that pose a danger to people. Aside from Governor Yeardley Lane, Horne said the more dramatic holes are on General Gookin Court.
Once an agreement is established between the county and the HOA, a repair project for two pipes will be sent out to bid; likely within a month construction can begin. Horne estimates construction wouldn’t take very long, likely a month or two at most. The county will also give the HOA updated status reports on other pipes the HOA will need to repair. The neighborhood’s developer, C. Lewis Waltrip, is also repairing a pipe.
“Unless you fix the pipes, the holes are just going to come back,” Horne said.
In 2011, VDOT awarded a contract to a company to line and seal drainage pipes that were in the VDOT right-of-way. The construction contract was fulfilled in April last year, a VDOT spokesperson said in an email.
“Currently, VDOT is working with Chris Thames, Fernbrook HOA president, in identifying any needed repairs that fall within VDOT right-of-way limits. We do not have work scheduled, however will continue to monitor the drainage system within our limits of responsibility and make necessary repairs as needed,” the VDOT spokesperson explained in an email.
