Route 80 sinkhole in Wharton caused by abandoned mine shaft. Repairs and delays continue

A sinkhole roughly the depth and width of a four-story building on a busy stretch of Interstate 80 in Wharton was caused by the collapse of an abandoned mineshaft, forcing workers to undergo sizeable repairs and delays of over an hour, according to officials.

The large depression on the shoulder of the roadway, which reaches 40 feet deep and 40 feet wide, has shuttered the eastbound lanes, forcing motorists to detour onto Exit 34 or take alternate routes, with a reopening of the roadway still unknown.

A specific time as to when the two-lane highway will reopen is “too soon to estimate” due to the extensive repairs, according to a Friday update by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. With freezing rain expected to blanket the area Friday evening into Saturday morning, the weather may also play a factor, officials said.

NJDOT crews have been working “around the clock” to complete the repair, officials said, with the area stabilized and excavation work that began Thursday evening.

Steve Schapiro, a spokesperson for the NJDOT, told NorthJersey.com that once excavated, they will backfill the area using wire mesh and stone aggregate, concrete and other fill before repaving the roadway.

It was not clear if the area where the sinkhole occurred had been previously monitored or if it had been a cause of concern. Schapiro did not respond to that inquiry.

Around 12:30 p.m., delays between 55 minutes and over an hour were reported near the Wharton exit as well as near Exit 28, an alternate exit for motorists to Route 46 eastbound, according to alerts from 511nj.org.

The sinkhole was first reported by officials around 7:45 a.m. on Thursday, with photos from motorists posted to social media showing a highway flooded with traffic, with New Jersey State Police working to reroute vehicles off the highway.

Morris County has hundreds of abandoned mines

Morris County is filled with over 100 abandoned underground mines, most located in the northwestern half of the county, with ore consisting of mostly magnetite, mica and graphite, according to a 2020 geographical report of Morris County.

New Jersey is susceptible to the effects of sinkholes and subsidence, or the sinking of the ground, primarily in the northern region of the state due in part to the abandoned mines, the report indicates.

The Garden State was historically an iron-producing state, and the first mines were drilled in the early 1700s. Although mines have closed in the state — the last one shuttered in 1986 — continued development in the northern part of the state has been “problematic” because of the prior extensive mining, creating subsidence, the report states.

The report states that one issue is that many of the surface openings of the mines were “improperly filled in,” with roads and structures being build atop the sites.

Among the several mines in the Rockaway, Wharton and the aptly named Mine Hill area include the Mount Pleasant Mine, which shows a location between the rear of the Avalon apartment complex on North Main Street and Route 80 eastbound, where the sinkhole appeared.

The Mount Pleasant Mine is one of the oldest in the state and first opened in 1786, according to the nearly 600-page geographical study “Iron Mines and Mining in New Jersey” compiled in 1910 by William Bayley, and often cited by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The mine was worked steadily until 1896, when it closed. At the time of its closure, it had a length of 3,500 feet and a depth of 1,400 feet, measured on the slope.

Up until June 1880, it is estimated the mine yielded 336,000 tons of ore, Bayley wrote.

Email: lcomstock@njherald.com; Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH or on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Route 80 sinkhole in Morris County caused by abandoned mineshaft

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