By Ethan Forman
DANVERS — When Town Manager Wayne Marquis told selectmen Tuesday the town had escaped "severe damage" from last weekend's torrential rains, he was not counting on a sink hole opening up on Route 62.
That happened around 10:30 yesterday morning, when a hole the size of a small car opened up between Summer and Vineyard streets. The hole visible at the surface was just the tip of the iceberg, however. The ground underneath the hole had opened up into a cavern 14 feet deep, undermining the roadway.
Town officials said it may be Monday before the roughly 500-foot stretch of road reopens and a culvert that runs underneath it is patched.
Joseph Finocchiaro, the town's street supervisor, said he ordered the road closed after he saw an 18-wheeler trying to drive around it and noticed dirt falling into the cavern below.
The hole opened just above a culvert that may have been damaged from rushing water after the rains, Finocchiaro said. Earlier in the week, Marquis told selectmen Danvers had received 8 inches of rain.
The street division had noticed the road starting to sag and patched it in hopes water levels in the area would fall enough to allow inspection of an old, 6-foot-square granite box culvert, Finocchiaro said. That was before the road let go.
"We think a couple of pieces of granite shifted," he said. "We won't know until we open it up."
The culvert carries water from the hilly area around Summer Street under Maple Street.
Assistant Town Manger Diane Norris said heavy equipment would be coming in last night "to dig out and see what is happening." It appears a granite block that supports the culvert under the road shifted or broke, she said.
Yesterday around 2 p.m., a front-end loader was installing concrete Jersey barriers across Route 62 to keep traffic out of the work site. Finocchiaro said a manhole cover on one side of the road near the sink hole marks a location where the road collapsed last year.
On Route 62, westbound traffic heading toward Middleton is being detoured onto Summer Street to North Street and then to Route 1.
Eastbound traffic heading toward Danvers Square, Route 128 and Beverly is being diverted onto Vineyard and Pickering streets, then onto Beaver Park Road and back on to Route 62.
