The King of Prussia Route 202 sinkhole is repaired after two years of traffic woes
The 202 lanes are open, but a problem 500 million years in the making isn't going away.
In a welcome development for motorists and merchants along one of the region’s densest mall corridors, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has announced that all lanes on a sinkhole-plagued stretch of Route 202 in King of Prussia are now open.
The southbound lanes in the vicinity of Henderson Road, closed since February for sinkhole repair, were reopened Wednesday, well in time for the annual holiday shopping tsunami.
Give nature an assist, PennDot spokesperson Brad Rudolph said. “The weather has been very cooperative this fall,” he said on the 17th consecutive rainless day in the Philly region. Plus, temperatures have been well above normal.
Nature arguably owed one to King of Prussia and PennDot. King of Prussia and other sections of Upper Merion Township have been battling a geological sinkhole problem that has been 500 million years in the making.
And even with this $22.4 million federally funded repair job, it is not going away. In intervals, the sinkholes have forced closings in both directions on 202 over the last two years.
“There is still more work to perform on the project,” Rudolph said.
“While major construction has been completed … drivers will encounter short-term lane closures as needed by the contractor to finish the entire project,” he said.
That stretch of highway is a critical access road to the phalanx of shops and malls on both sides of the road, including the King of Prussia Mall.
It also happens to be located above a geological sinkhole.
The township is situated in the heart of a narrow corridor of limestone bedrock, a “karst” formation. It extends from central Chester County across southern Montgomery County.
About 500 million years ago, a sea covered the area, explained Geoff Hickman, Upper Merion’s public works director. Over time, shells and other sediment settled on the sea floor, transforming to limestone and dolomite underlying the area today.
When moisture dissolves the limestone, hollow pockets form below the surface, causing sinkholes.
The repair work has been immensely labor-intensive. It has included burrowing down more than 100 feet to apply grout.
The Route 202 sinkholes, Hickman said, “are among the most significant in township history.”
The project has been a pain for commuters and merchants.
Pattie Malone, director of Marian’s Attic, a nonprofit thrift store on 202, said the construction and traffic signage have been a customer repellent for the entire area.
“We’re doing all right,” Malone said last month. But “I cannot even imagine what we would be doing if that road was open.”
