KINGSTON >> The electronic road sign said it all: “WASHINGTON AVE. OPEN.”
The words on the sign, near the Super 8 hotel, changed at long last Monday morning when a section of Washington Avenue about a mile to south, closed for more than five years because of a sinkhole, reopened to traffic.
VIDEO: A neighbor reacts to the road reopening
The area of the repaired sinkhole, near the Washington Avenue intersection with Linderman Avenue, was repaved two weeks ago, and the barriers that kept traffic off Washington Avenue between Linderman and The Boulevard (were Route 32) were removed by the Kingston Department of Public Works at 9 a.m. Monday.
The sinkhole opened in April 2011 and was blamed on a leaks from a century-old underground stormwater tunnel.
The soil at the site finally was stabilized last fall with the construction of a 10,000-ton underground archway beneath the road’s surface and above the tunnel.
The total cost of the sinkhole repair project stands at about $7.6 million, which is to be offset by a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
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