{"id":42417,"date":"2025-05-18T01:34:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T06:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42417"},"modified":"2025-05-18T05:02:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T10:02:38","slug":"the-entire-shoulder-seems-to-have-collapsed-new-videos-show-initial-response-to-sinkhole-on-i-80-in-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42417","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The entire shoulder seems to have collapsed\u2019: New videos show initial response to sinkhole on I-80 in New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Drivers riding on Interstate 80 spotted an unexpected present the morning after last Christmas — a sinkhole<\/a> just feet away from where cars were passing by in suburban New Jersey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook at how far it goes under there,\u201d a man says in police video footage obtained by ABC News on Friday. \u201cThey may have to shut the whole [expletive] road down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a prediction that turned out to be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since the sinkhole was spotted along one of the busiest highways in the Northeast on Dec. 26, 2024, parts of I-80 have been closed to drivers on and off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closures have angered<\/a> local business owners and caused congestion on detour routes that frequently paralyzes the streets of Wharton along with surrounding communities in Morris County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The formation of the sinkhole was quickly linked to the region\u2019s mining heritage, with the collapse of an abandoned mineshaft under I-80 identified as the cause. Additional sinkholes have popped up<\/a> in the time since December\u2019s collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video footage, which was recorded by a New Jersey State Police trooper and released in response to a request filed by ABC News under New Jersey state law, shows two drivers standing steps from the sinkhole in shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just went by and were like, \u2018holy [expletive],\u2019\u201d one man tells the trooper while steam appears to be rising from the sinkhole in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen nothing like this,\u201d another man says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within a few minutes, troopers shut down two of the eastbound lines of the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe entire shoulder seems to have collapsed,\u201d a trooper says over his police radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This stretch of I-80 is frequently used by both local commuters along with long-distance drivers traveling between the New York<\/a> metropolitan area and Pennsylvania, Upstate New York or the Midwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commuters impacted by detours were encouraged to ride New Jersey Transit trains since the agency has a station in Mount Arlington, west of the area where the sinkholes formed, but rail service is currently suspended<\/a> due to a strike by engineers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a press release issued Friday, the New Jersey Department of Transportation announced that two eastbound lanes on I-80 may reopen as soon as May 21, with the entire highway slated to reopen by June 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drivers riding on Interstate 80 spotted an unexpected present the morning after last Christmas — a sinkhole just feet away from where cars were passing by in suburban New Jersey. \u201cLook at how far it goes under there,\u201d a man says in police video footage obtained by ABC News on Friday. \u201cThey may have to shut the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":42418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1170,31485],"class_list":["post-42417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-new","tag-sinkhole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42419,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42417\/revisions\/42419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}