ALTON, Ill. (KTVI) – Security video from an Illinois park shows a sinkhole open up below the $1.2 million soccer fields and swallow a massive light pole.
“At the surface, it was all at once,” Michael Haynes, director of Alton Parks & Recreation, said. “It all went.”
Haynes said mines below fields 3 and 4 at the Gordon F. Moore Community Park began having issues beneath the ground, causing the sinkhole around 8:30 a.m.
New Frontier Materials, a quarry mining underneath the park, sent engineers to assess the situation Wednesday.
Haynes was told crews were mining 150 feet below the soccer fields. He estimates the drop in the sinkhole to be about 50 feet or deeper and 100 feet wide. The park will rely on geologists and engineers to come up with a plan moving forward.
Matt Barkett, spokesperson for New Frontier Materials, released a statement Wednesday stating, "We will work with the city to remediate this issue as quickly and safely as possible to ensure minimal impact on the community."
Another photography company, 618 Drone Service, captured the scene and shared it on social media in the aftermath.
The park's new artificial turf was just installed in 2018.
With barricades and police on site making sure to keep onlookers away, one thing is clear: the fields and parking lots are going to be closed for some time.
“The rest of the park is open,” Haynes said. “Just not the parking lots around the soccer field. The rest of the ball diamonds and golf course will remain open.”
No injuries were reported.
