Engineers To Assess 20-Foot Williamson County Sinkhole

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TX — Engineers are expected to assess a 20-foot sinkhole that opened up near Round Rock and Cedar Park, making a sound that residents confused for thunder early Thursday.

The street collapse occurred around 3 a.m. at the Woods of Brushy Creek neighborhood situated between Highway 183 and Cedar Park on the west and Interstate 35 and Round Rock to the east. Residents say they heard what they believed was thunder amid the collapse that broke a pipe, leaving about a dozen homes without water, according to reports.

A water line leak that caused the collapse along the 8400 block of Cambria Drive, north of State Highway 45. Officials said the street will likely remain closed for several weeks as officials try to figure out how to fix it. The phenomenon is known as a karst feature, a county spokeswoman told reporters. This is type of landscape underlain by limestone commonly seen with ravines and underground streams — like a cave with a collapsed roof — officials explained.

Hydrogeologists descended to the site on Thursday and structural engineers will be dispatched to Cambria Drive at Ephraim Road on Friday to assess the damage and determine the best way of repairing the road and sidewalk, a county spokeswoman told reporters.

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