Parking Lot Sinkhole Off Darrow Road Causes Safety Concerns

A sinkhole on the property of restaurant will be repaired by the city at the owner’s expense.

The sinkhole is located at the northeast corner of the parking lot at 3428 Darrow Rd.

Owner Timothy Correia on April 12 asked the Roads and Safety Committee to address the need for its repair.

“The fact is that it’s so close to the road way and so close to the street. It really does need to be repaired,” Service Director Dano Koehler said.

Protected by barricades, it is approximately 12-foot by 12-foot wide, approximately 7 feet deep and formed in mid-February, said Brad Kosko, Stow senior engineer.

Because the sinkhole is right off Darrow Road and a potential hazard to pedestrians, the city declared it a public nuisance. It will immediately contract construction for its repair, pending a legal agreement with Correia to reimburse the city for the costs by July 2013, said Mike Miller, Stow assistant service director.

“We’re concerned that curiosity seekers might get too close (to the sinkhole), and about the fact that it’s so close to the right of way,” he said.

Because it presents a safety concern to the public to delay repair of the sinkhole, city council agreed to hire a contractor to begin construction on the project at an estimated cost of $6,400. Council also authorized as much as 10 percent more than the current estimate if needed, Miller said.

Complicating the situation is a small bridge running under Darrow Road, owned by the state, near where the sinkhole formed, which the state plans to replace in 2013. A concrete lid that had been put in place with small beams under it at least 60 years ago, at what is now the northeast corner of the restaurant property, over time deteriorated and eventually gave way, causing the sinkhole, he said.

Miller expects construction to repair the sinkhole will begin as soon as an agreement for the owner to reimburse the city is in place.