ST LOUIS (LALATE) – An Ohio sinkhole struck State Route 516 this week. ODOT tells news that the Ohio sinkhole this week is the worse that they have seen in the state in nearly two decades.

Officials indicate to news that the Ohio sinkhole won’t be fixed until 2013. For now, traffic from Route 516 is being diverted to State Route 39 and State Route 93. “I’ve worked for ODOT sixteen years and I’ve never seen anything of this magnitude,” Ohio Department of Transportation District 11 Director Lloyd McAdam said in news statement this week. “It’s very unusual that something like this would happen.”

Analysts still aren’t sure the cause of the sinkhole. It now marks four football fields in width. But investigators claim that the sinkhole developed as a pond collapsed after Newton Asphalt Company was dredging for sand.

Lieutenant Eric Escola, commander of the New Philadelphia post of the Ohio Highway Patrol, tells news “We’re very fortunate it didn’t happen in the middle of the night… [Anyone could] have fallen in there, and could have easily caused fatal injuries.” Officials believe the sinkhole is now 85 feet deep and 100 feet wide. It remains unclear if the sinkhole could still grow further.

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