I-80 is the second longest Interstate in the country and runs from San Francisco, California to Teaneck, New Jersey. I-80 has experienced a series of sinkholes over the past several months, leading to significant traffic congestion and road closures across the state.

Many may recognize the Interstate from their daily commute to school or work. Investigations have led to the discovery of the collapse of multiple abandoned mineshafts located beneath the highway and voids caused by these mineshafts. The mineshafts were most likely improperly filled in or had weakened over time, as they date back to the 1780s and early 1800s.

According to CBS News, the third sinkhole hit in Wharton on March 20th (15 by 15 feet) and shut down traffic on both sides of the highway. While the December incident in Morris County (40 feet) only took four days to fix due to an emergency action, the other two sinkholes from February 10th in Morris County, and March 20th in Wharton are still being worked on. Huge areas of the highway have been closed off as a precaution, which has resulted in traffic being rerouted through the downtowns and local areas of Denville, Dover, Randolph, Parsippany, Wharton, and Booton. In fact, many students from MBS, such as Charlotte Sussman ‘25, has experienced such holdup in her town of Randolph everyday as she commutes to and from MBS

Will Krupnick ‘25 has similar experiences coming from Boonton. He said, “driving to school takes upwards of 45 minutes. The drive [before the sinkholes] usually [took] about 25 minutes whereas this past week the drive has taken almost an hour on some days.”

ABC7 NY has reported that along with causing mass traffic disruptions, these sinkholes have driven customers away from the local businesses along I-80. While these restaurants and stores would usually be crowded with drivers stopping for lunch or a break from the road, there is no one to stop by anymore. The areas of I-80 that are open are extremely busy with traffic and tend to drive people away from staying there any longer. Customers have been spooked by the sinkholes or cannot easily reach the businesses located closest to the construction work.

Until the area is reopened, this congestion is expected to continue. As of now, between Exit 24 and the bridge over Route 15, two westbound lanes are intended to open around May 4th followed by two eastbound lanes around May 18th. The several other remaining lanes are set to reopen around June 25th, depending on working weather conditions.

For more information, check out the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s website. Here, you will find timely updates to the construction and future reopening plans.