Berry’s campus at a high risk for developing sinkholes.
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| One of Berry’s 26 known sinkholes. |
Despite a history of sinkholes at Berry, college officials say they are confident plans to build a football stadium on campus can move forward without delay or special provision for sinkholes.
A major reason for the confidence is the status of the water table under Berry’s lands, said Mark Hopkins, director of physical plant.
“Sinkholes used to be a huge problem,” he said. “But now that the quarry is full, the water table won’t fluctuate.”
Hopkins said it was fluctuation in the water table’s levels that caused a majority of Berry’s sinkholes over time.
In addition, college buildings are monitored for movement, he said.
“Our building code requires the foundation of a building to be drilled 10 feet into bedrock so [the foundation] is very stable,” Hopkins said.
Add all of these precautions and changes together and you get a green light for Valhalla, the planned football stadium.
“We had the [stadium] location tested by geologists last October and there has been no sinkhole activity by the football field,” he said.
Unstable ground could increase the cost of building the stadium, but that’s why the college bought sinkhole insurance, Hopkins said.
Little risk to students
Though Berry’s main campus is prone to sinkholes due to unstable ground and shifts in weather, sinkholes are not seen as a risk for students or for the campus’s buildings.
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Tamie Jovanelly,
assistant professor of physics
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Tamie Jovanelly, assistant professor of physics at Berry, said main campus sits on limestone bedrock that easily dissolves from naturally acidic rainwater. It is this dissolution that leads to sinkholes.
“An increase in rain causes dissolution of the rock, and during drought time sinkholes are more likely to occur,” she said.
Certainly sinkholes were more prevalent in the past, according to Berry’s director of land resources, Billy Yeomans.
“We have records from the 1930s that show sinkholes being here, and since then there have been 26 known sinkholes on campus,” he said.
Sinkholes have occurred at Victory Lake in 1987, Clara Bowl in 1997, the Krannert Center in 1999 and the road outside of Laughlin and Moon buildings in 2011, he said.
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| Recorded sinkholes on Berry’s campus since the 1930s. |
