A section of Chambers County Road 23 has been blocked off Thursday due to a large hole appearing in the street.

The hole, Chambers County Engineer Josh Harvill said, was caused by the failure of an old pipe running under the road. Since the issue was underground, the problem went unnoticed.

“It’s a place where the creek goes under the road,” Harvill said. “A 72 inch, 6 foot in diameter metal pipe that has been there, could be 30 or 40 years, finally reached the end of its lifespan and let us know with a hole in the road.”

Harvill said that repairs will start early next week.

“We are working on another project that we had already started so we are wrapping that up and should be able to get started on it next week,” he said. “It is a big pipe replacement but we are fortunate that we’ve got the capabilities of replacing it quickly. We keep big pipe on hand in case something like this were to happen.”

For those who may live on or around CR 23, Harvill said that the blocked off portion of the road should not affect traffic to Hwy. 432 too much.

“The good thing is that most of the houses are North of there,” he said. “It is a little bit of a detour for some, but for most people it’s not changing the way that they would access 431. Its not as bad as it could be, but the fact that it’s unexpected and unplanned is not good.”