A car had to be removed from a large hole that opened in the middle of an I-4 exit ramp in Maitland as construction crews were drilling underneath the ramp Monday afternoon.

The 2-foot-deep, 15-foot-wide hole, initially described by Maitland fire officials as a "potential sinkhole," opened sometime after 4 p.m. on the Exit 90A ramp from eastbound I-4 to eastbound Maitland Boulevard.

The Florida Department of Transportation later said a "pavement failure" sent the car, a white Honda, front-end first into the depression in the road. The driver safely got out of his car and was not hurt. The car was later removed from the hole.

After being closed for hours, Exit 90A, from the eastbound interstate to eastbound Maitland Boulevard, is back open.





Sky 13 over the hole while the car was still stuck Monday, Oct. 26, 2015.



Crews wasted no time Monday evening getting to work to repair the hole, which they said started when they hit a pipe they didn't even know was there.

According to FDOT, construction crews working on the I-4 Ultimate improvement project were conducting horizontal drilling about 40 feet below the exit ramp when they hit an old pipe.

"That pipe was actually made of clay, so it washed a little bit of that area out. Dirt settled down, and that's what created that depression," I-4 Ultimate spokesman David Parks explained.

Parks added Monday's road incident does not affect any future I-4 Ultimate construction zones or timelines. The massive road project is scheduled to be completed in 2021.



This view from an FDOT traffic camera shows the construction under the Exit 90A ramp.

"It's kind of a little bit scary. Any one of us could have been in that car," said Louise Ward, who takes the Maitland off-ramp every day to and from work. "It always makes you think, that could have been me."

Ward and thousands of others were caught in a traffic backup after the hole opened. Those who live nearby were forced into a detour in order to get home Monday.

"It's my exit ramp, so now I have to detour to 90B, then go up around Lake Destiny," said Tony Edwards, who was on his way home when the hole opened Monday. "It takes a little bit longer to get home, but it's not too bad. At least you have another exit to go."



(Sky 13)