Portion of Rice Road in Tyler closed for final phase of sinkhole repair

TYLER — Roadwork continues this week on the Rice Road sink hole in Tyler. According to our news partner KETK, the work started Sunday night, and closed a portion of Rice Road from S. Broadway Avenue to Old Bullard Road will be closed. Old Bullard Road will be closed to northbound traffic as well. “Once we found the sinkhole and we started excavating and digging down there it was almost like a pandora’s box of things that we kind of found,” said Kate Dietz, PE, City of Tyler Director of Utilities. “Traffic will still be able to go North and South on Old Bullard, similar to when we did the temporary pavement repair,” said Dietz. They hope to have the sinkhole repaired, the road repaved and be ready to open again by the end of the week. Problems began on Dec. 1 when Rice Road closed due to the discovery of the sinkhole. Crews initially estimated repairs could take up to 72 hours, but that timeline was extended due to setbacks including the location of telecommunication, fiber, gas and other utility lines buried in the area.