Roaring Bulldozers Encounter Massive,
Expensive Collapse at Transpark Magna Site in Bowling Green, Kentucky

One Collapse or Several?

By Roger W. Brucker

Also see The Beginning: An Objective AP Story

Dishman Lane was a catastrophic collapse of a major Bowling Green, KY road into a cave in February 2002. That avoidable "accident" cost $1 million to fix, and responsibility for the goof is being hushed up.

Almost two years later, an apparent collapse of the Dishman Lane type took place during the second week of site preparation for construction of a car parts plant on the western edge of the proposed Kentucky (TriModal) Transpark. A site study "for informational purposes only" recently conducted by Dr. Nicholas Crawford (Director, Center for Cave and Karst Studies, Western Kentucky University) had pronounced the site good to go - no caves beneath it, no collapse potential of any real concern. Contractors have made frantic attempts to cover up and deny the new collapse.

First Collapse Sends the Ants Scrambling
Starting on January 29, 2004 residents living near the Transpark site of the new Magna auto parts plant noted an extraordinary convoy of construction dump trucks filled with crushed limestone of various sizes from gravel to boulders. Rumors spread that an unexpected collapse had occurred and the rush was on to fill it up quickly, as if to hide the unpleasant surprise from all eyes. Magna Corporation officials may have missed the unfolding saga over the next few days, but residents saw most of it. Following is what happened according to local observers. Officials state for the record that this has been a "routine" sinkhole filling.

Since mid-January 2004, bulldozers and trucks have begun work preparing a site along U.S. Route 68-80 for the construction of the multi-hundred million dollar, up-to-1100-jobs Magna car parts plant. A number of farm buildings have been destroyed, and unlawful open burning of debris with no permit has been carried out, and documented. A berm, ostensibly to block the view, was hastily thrown up parallel to U.S. 68-80.

This parcel of land is under rezoning appeal from agricultural to heavy industry. It is rolling karst land, farmed and residential, dotted with sinkholes and other karst features. On the aerial photo below, this proposed construction site is the land located above (north) and to the right (east) of the sinkhole-ponds. This area is near major entrances - Wolf Sink and Grant-Palmore caves - to the sinkhole plain's underground rivers. Both the aerial photo and the topographic map indicate numerous sinkholes.

KEEP Magna site 68 80 at Hayes Martin Rd 1993 USGS Photo.

THURSDAY JANUARY 29:
On Thursday, January 29, a long line of dump trucks loaded with fill rock was observed traveling down Hayes-Martin Rd., on the western edge (nearest to Scott Industries) of the site being prepared for construction, just south of 68-80. There were reports of a "collapse." The photo below shows five trucks, and observers state that more were used: "They came and went all day."

KEEP Trucks at Magna site 1 29 04 KEEP Photo 2004 (c) 2004 Guy Briggs

The photos indicate a collapse of the Dishman Lane type: Beneath a thick layer of topsoil, what looks like a sheared-off section of bedrock is visible. Below it, a dark space is seen, suggesting a subterranean void. In the photos, the dark void is almost covered over by a pile of new, light gray crushed limestone fill rock. On the right side of the hole, a bulldozer with a blade is poised to push more rock into the hole. A power shovel stands nearby and scraper marks appear on the contoured sides of the basin.

When these photos were viewed by a professional geologist that same day, his response was "It is not possible to tell from them whether this is a new collapse or an excavation and repair. They do clearly show that "modification" of a sinkhole is taking place, as well as the magnitude of premature work being conducted on the site." Discussion among numerous viewers of these photos indicated that it certainly looked like a collapse, with a cave entrance evident in the photo. Decide for yourself - the photo is posted below.

It was ascertained that no permit was obtained by the contractor for filling in a sinkhole at this location, in violation of a Bowling Green city ordinance.

KEEP limestone bedrock and void 1 30 04 KEEP Photo 2004 (c) 2004 Guy Briggs

KEEP Membranes and fill Magna site 1 31 04 KEEP Photo 2004 (c) 2004 Guy Briggs

The geologist relates that "When we witnessed the hole however, it was filled some 20 feet already and the official agreed that (paraphrase) 'yes it was still about 15 to 20 feet below grade. No cave boys, no collapse - now I'm suppose to tell you to leave about now.'"

The geologist continues that, as they walked back to their car, an employee of Stewart-Richey Contracting walked up and, following introductions, questions were asked about the 'cave.' Again paraphrasing, the contractor replied, "Heck - no cave here man, just a 20 foot deep hole that had about 20 feet of mushy soil in it that we just had to excavate down to what we thought was a bedrock throat."

As of Sunday evening, February 1, photos show that the site was smoothed over and filled in, indistinguishable from the rest of the very large bulldozed and graded area. Out of sight, out of mind. A 'Jimmy Hoffa style' end to a mystery? No, because the problem continues.

Continuing problems - a second new collapse?
It looks like there is some kind of continuing problem with the stability of the sinkhole/collapse described above, and similar problems with the larger site as well. During the days following the initial, apparent 'stabilization' of this probable collapse, four to six inches of rain fell in the immediate area. This may be a clue to what happened next:

FEBRUARY 9 - 12
Beginning on Monday, February 9, observers noted that a daily stream of cement transport semis was unloading into the "mushy spot" beyond the new 'No Trespassing' signs on Hayes-Martin Road.

Here's what an eyewitness said on February 11: "I noticed today that the cement semis are back... the smaller trucks appear to be spreading the cement or what ever the semis are hauling on the ground, then there is some sort of machine that works it in the soil or has some type of mixing function. It had been raining more than six inches for several days. An observer said that one or more large dewatering pumps were brought in to get rid of excess water." (Where was the water pumped to?)

"Then they returned to spreading red clay over the collapse site. The day before the red clay application, the spread material looked like snow over the collapse site."

KEEP basin like depression Magna 2 04 KEEP Photo 2004 (c) 2004 Guy Briggs

"He did say that he went to the site with a small load of 15 tons and was asked to drive around on the site where they had compacted the soil from to see how the ground carried his truck's weight.

"He said they measured how deep the truck cut down in different spots. His truck weighed 12.5 tons so the gross dynamic load was 27 tons.

"He said that the work on Scottsville's road had that same cement or grout type material used on it also. It was to firm the ground or stabilize it."

Another day of filling, cementing, and hiding
On February 12, 2004, a viewer said, "I passed the work site today around 11:00 a.m. Although it is difficult to view all activity, I could see that the "non collapse" in the "non sinkhole" has been filled and leveled. Surprisingly, the concrete laden trucks continue their procession to the work area. I counted no fewer than fifteen of the trucks lining the new gravel road prepared for carrying very heavy loads onto the still rain-saturated ground. There were probably more trucks there but a ten foot high earth berm obscures most vision from the road. I noticed a cloud of concrete dust arising from another "non sinkhole" approximately 100 yards from the first fill, parallel to U.S. 68-80."

What Can We Conclude?

The fact remains that ITA (InterModal Transportation Authority) and its subcontractors had a grading permit but not a sinkhole modification/filling permit when dealing with the first recent apparent collapse. Law breaking remains the norm. Likewise, this is (or was, at that time) city property, and they did not have a burning permit, although they were burning demolition debris. Flames like these usually draw official law enforcement attention or fire engines.

There were no drawings or "as builts" for filling this hole, and the first apparent collapse situation seems to have arisen suddenly, necessitating that work be done over the weekend instead of during regular working hours.

Suspicious Activities and More Denials
How could illegal activities go on unless city officials were asleep or derelict in their duty? Was this malice, ignorance, or stupidity? How much money did this cost, to dig out 20 or more feet of "mushy soil" and backfill with truckload after truckload of large limestone rocks? Does it take two weeks of continuous hauling of fill to un-mushy a 20 foot soft spot?

And why was this done without geophysical or further geological investigation? The present environmental reconnaissance of this parcel offers only "informational" soil borings. It provides only assumptions regarding the top of bedrock, and provides only non-core calibrated, one-time over geophysics.

A 2001 study by Western Kentucky University engineer Matthew Dettman states that any construction in the Bowling Green area can expect an average of one collapse per acre. This karst region, according to a study published by the Warren County Planning and Zoning Commission, is the riskiest karst in the state for collapse, flooding, and pollution.

Why All the Fuss?
One may ask, who cares if a developer and contractor run into unforeseen construction troubles? Who cares what mistakes can cost millions of dollars? Who cares if they disobey laws? Who cares that their promised "binding elements" of safe construction are simply ignored?

A great many taxpayers and ordinary citizens care because it is their tax dollars that politicians are diverting into this risky project. Law-abiding citizens resent it when favored developers set aside laws - apparently with official connivance - and ramrod through with bulldozers. Whistleblowers to this injustice are silenced with threats of lawsuits.

What can you do?

• Send money to Stoptranspark.org to continue to fund challenges to this gross injustice, and to continue to educate about the risks of karst collapse, flooding, and pollution (information on how to donate is on the front page of this web site).
• Buy and proudly wear a "Karst First" T-shirt (ordering info on the front web site page). Your donations help the fight.
• Get involved in the political process: write letters to the editors of Kentucky's major newspapers, and to the Bowling Green Daily News.
• Let your elected and appointed representatives in local, county, state and federal government know that environmentally irresponsible development leads to economic disaster.
• Let the National Park Service and cave and karst experts know that you are against development that will further damage Mammoth Cave National Park's environmental quality.

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