SPRING VALLEY, Calif. (KGTV)— The sounds of construction and crews in hard hats will soon be gone.
“We are going to be done in two weeks with the entire project,” Eric Tallarita, the Project Manager, said.
San Diego County contracted crews are fixing what the Jan. 22 brought to this Casa De Oro neighborhood.
“When I got home that afternoon, Dennis from across the street comes out and says I got a sinkhole at the bottom of the hill,” Max Wright, a neighbor, said. “And then I’m gonna say two or three days later, another sinkhole opened up between the two holes.”
Tallarita told ABC 10News the hole was approximately 30 feet long, 20 feet wide and 15 to 20 feet deep.
“The biggest risk were the initial sinkholes growing and impacting the two structures adjacent to them,” Tallarita said.
The sinkholes put the homes and a pool at risk.
After filling the sinkholes, crews began work on the damaged storm drain - which caused the sinkhole - to replace a sewer line.
“I’m told it is the most complex emergency project that the County’s experienced, mainly due to the access constraints and the deep excavation as well as the two-one slope in the backyard,” Tallarita said.
This is the final project left to be completed on a list of County Flood Board-approved flood repair projectsin Spring Valley.
“Public outreach was really important for us, especially with the two adjacent homeowners that we were in their backyard pretty much every single day,” Tallarita said.
Neighbors like Wright told ABC 10News they’ve seen that outreach firsthand as crews fix the remainder of the January storm.
“Whenever we have to get out, if their tractors [are] in the way, they move it. They were going to repave the street on Saturday. And I convinced them to postpone it a week because we’re having a birthday party here on Saturday with 30 guests and they said okay,” Wright said.
“So, we really did our best to keep the whole neighborhood informed,” Tallarita said.
