Mystery of pothole solved
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - After weeks of mystery, work crews have
determined why a pothole kept reappearing near the Johnson County
Courthouse.
After filling the hole, only to see it disappear, workers
finally broke up the concrete and dug in the dirt below. The effort
revealed a limestone cistern.
County facilities manager David Kempf says workers tied a hammer
to tape measure and sent it down the well. It determined the
four-foot wide hole was 22 feet deep.
Kempf guesses the cistern could be as old as the 110-year-old
courthouse or older.
A county jail used to be behind the courthouse. Kempf says the
hole may have been a cistern that a roof drain went to.
Whatever its age and purpose, Kempf says the hole was filled
with gravel and a pothole is not expected to reappear.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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