Williamson County Gets TCEQ OK To Seal Cambria Cave Fracture

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, TEXAS — State environmental regulators have approved a plan by the county to fill a fracture found in an underground cave revealed after a street buckled in February.

Williamson County officials said in a press release Tuesday that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has approved a plan to fill the fracture that was discovered at the cave on Sept. 14. As for the underground cave itself, it was discovered after a portion of Cambria Drive collapsed after a leaky water line continually dripped over the roof, leading to the collapse.

The February street collapse occurred in the wee hours of the morning when there was no traffic on the roadway, a collapse that took down parts of Cambria Drive and Ephraim Road. County officials have since been working to seal the 170-foot-long cave located in the Brushy Creek area, and have closed the 8400 block of Cambria Drive to traffic while fencing off the area.

Earlier this month, a 23=foot-long fracture was discovered, requiring mitigation by county officials. The fracture has a crack on it with an average width of six inches, county officials said in a press advisory.

"Prior to the discovery, the fracture had not been observed during any other field investigations," county officials said in a press release. "There is no evidence of previous human entry. The fracture is located on both sides of the trench wall and measures approximately 23 feet long with an average crack width of 6 inches."

The TCEQ-approved plan calls for having the fracture and the trench backfilled with concrete, according to county officials. Once the fracture and trench have been sealed/filled with the concrete and it has had adequate time to cure, the implementation of the Cambria Cavern mitigation plan may resume according to the original approved plans.

Weather permitting, Chasco Constractors will be able to start back to work on Wednesday with small concrete items like replacing some sidewalk and curb. A copy of the sensitive feature mitigation plan for an additional fracture can be found on the county’s website at www.wilco.org.

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>>> Photo courtesy of Williamson County