‘The entire shoulder seems to have collapsed’: New videos show initial response to sinkhole on I-80 in New Jersey
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.
“Look at how far it goes under there,” a man says in police video footage obtained by ABC News on Friday. “They may have to shut the whole [expletive] road down.”
It was a prediction that turned out to be true.
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.
The closures have angered local business owners and caused congestion on detour routes that frequently paralyzes the streets of Wharton along with surrounding communities in Morris County.
The formation of the sinkhole was quickly linked to the region’s mining heritage, with the collapse of an abandoned mineshaft under I-80 identified as the cause. Additional sinkholes have popped up in the time since December’s collapse.
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.
“We just went by and were like, ‘holy [expletive],’” one man tells the trooper while steam appears to be rising from the sinkhole in front of them.
“I’ve never seen nothing like this,” another man says.
Within a few minutes, troopers shut down two of the eastbound lines of the highway.
“The entire shoulder seems to have collapsed,” a trooper says over his police radio.
This stretch of I-80 is frequently used by both local commuters along with long-distance drivers traveling between the New York metropolitan area and Pennsylvania, Upstate New York or the Midwest.
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 due to a strike by engineers.
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.
