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Two sinkholes swallow parts of US-19 in Homosassa Springs adding to construction headache

Posted at 6:37 PM, Feb 01, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-01 18:37:40-05

Crews are working to repair two sinkholes that swallowed up part of US-19 near Homosassa Springs, but right now the holes are just a small part of a larger problem on that stretch of road.
 
A $28 million construction project to widen US-19 near Homosassa Springs to six lanes has been going on since November 2016.
 
But now those plans have a hole in them, well two holes.

Two sinkholes, one the size of a car, is slowing down traffic on US-19, closing one lane on each side of the highway.

The FDOT says this is the 5th and 6th sinkhole they’ve had during this two mile long project. The most recent holes formed on Tuesday, one car-sized hole in the median and a smaller hole in the right lane of southbound US-19. 
 
On Thursday, crews continued to carefully fill in the holes with cement.
 
Business owner Kemper Leach says the two and a half year construction project happening directly outside of his business has slowed sales by 35 percent since it started.
 
Leach said, "The construction is going to be good when it's finished but it seems like its taking a long time and there’s a lot of problems with people able to get to my business."
 
FDOT says the project isn’t scheduled to be done until spring of 2019 because of the mess they’re dealing with underground and the sinkholes are just another issue to add. 

Crews hope to have the lanes reopened within the next few days.