The state plans to share an update by September about the timeline for repairs of a sinkhole along Olive Chapel Road in Apex, the North Carolina Department of Transportation announced Monday.
“We are still working through the complexity of this project, such as the need to relocate a water line and acquire additional right of way,” NCDOT public relations officer Andrew Barksdale wrote in a news release. “We are working collaboratively with utility providers, the town of Apex and adjacent stakeholders to reopen the road as quickly as feasible within the complex conditions.
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“We hope to have a clearer timeline, including a construction schedule, that we can announce to the public by September.”
On Aug. 6, severe storms dropped more than 9 inches of rain in some places across the Triangle, flooding multiple roads, especially in Cary and Apex. On Olive Chapel Road near Ashley Downs Drive in Apex, a culvert carrying Beaver Creek failed, causing the street to collapse under the weight of rushing water.
The collapse opened a sinkhole that could take months to repair.
Barksdale said the current pipe is “several decades old” and “failed due to the immense amount of water volume produced by last week’s flash flooding.”
“It was damaged beyond repair, so a temporary fix is not possible before the road could be safely reopened,” Barksdale wrote. “We are in the process of finalizing the design of a project to replace it with a larger culvert that will meet the department’s current design standards, and be better resilient against future flooding.
“After an evaluation last week, we have removed the concrete sidewalk along this portion of the road, because the road and sidewalk are unstable for people to traverse it.”
Over the weekend, Apex Town Council Member Terry Mahaffey sent a lengthy email newsletter to help residents understand the Olive Chapel Road collapse and why it could take so long to make repairs.
The NCDOT, which owns and maintains the road, has set Nov. 26 as the timeline to reopen due to the extensive damage.However, Mahaffey said the project will be more than a repair, so the timeline could be longer.
Mahaffey wrote, "It’s key to understand that NCDOT and Apex don’t want to just repair what was there. It’ll just fail again. We want the project [to] expand the size of the culvert and allow it to carry more water without failing."
Mahaffey said the culvert under the road has been known to be undersized for years, and a replacement project was already planned for 2026 before the road collapsed this month.
"Obviously that timetable has moved up," the town council member wrote.
He also called the Aug. 6 rainfall a "200-year storm," saying more than 9 inches of rain fell.
"This is why the culvert and road failed," Mahaffey said. "A ton of water fell from the sky, more than the culvert could convey under the road."
When will Olive Chapel Road reopen?
The NCDOT has set an estimated reopening date of Nov. 26, which may be alarming to drivers who use the route daily and will be forced to take a detour around the closure.
Mahaffey said, unfortunately, the project could take even longer.
"I think it’s looking increasingly likely the project will take longer than the three months," he wrote. "The complete solution has not yet been designed, or the property acquired for it (can’t do that until you have a design), nor the state and federal permits secured."
The overall project is estimated to cost more than $2 million.