Sinkholes dot Kentucky’s landscape almost as much as horse farms, distilleries and even Corvettes. For The City of Bowling Green’s Public Works Department, this means different processes have to be in place when the ground opens up.

Crews from Public Works and Scott & Ritter in recent days have been on Single Tree Way in the Briarwood area working on a sinkhole that opened up just feet from from a separate sinkhole that appeared last fall.

Public Works head Andy Souza told the Daily News then that the city had worked on the sinkhole before, saying the city “didn’t know how bad this was.”

Nick Lawhon, the city’s geologist, told the Daily News that most of the notice the city gets about sinkholes come from reports from citizens.

“We go out, we inspect it and assess how big of a job we think it’s going to be to repair it,” he said.

Lawhon said most of Bowling Green’s sinkholes form in areas where stormwater collection happens or in naturally low spots in the city’s terrain. Under local ordinance, if one forms within the city’s right-of-way, on city-owned property or stems off of city infrastructure, Public Works steps in.

“Let’s say a failed storm drain causes water to run off into somebody’s yard, and that causes the sinkhole,” he said. “We will repair those as well, because that stems from an issue with our system.”

Lawhon said the reason Single Tree is having issues with sinkholes goes back several decades to the beginnings of the neighborhood. Before the area was developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it was a low spot in the land where water collected and created sinkhole-favorable conditions underground.

“At the time this subdivision was developed, it was before the city had comprehensive stormwater drainage requirements,” Lawhon said. “Those didn’t come into force until 1976 and, as with any new regulatory requirement, it takes a little bit of time for that to get rolled out.”

This has led to continued work in the area to mitigate sinkholes. Lawhon said the city has repeatedly had to drill new drainage wells in the area, working around utility lines in the process which can lead to some problems.

“Digging out a sinkhole, on its face it seems like a simple concept at the beginning,” Lawhon said, adding that the situation is almost always complicated by the flow of water and different infrastructure located underground.

While working at the site last week, the movement of some earth in the hole broke a water main under Single Tree. Lawhon said crews with Bowling Green Municipal Utilities were notified of the work going on in the area, and were able to stop the leak in about 20 minutes.

Lawhon said having to return to a sinkhole site is not an uncommon occurrence, but it doesn’t happen with every one.

However, he said, repairs made to sinkholes are done on a “human time-scale” and there’s no way to permanently fix a sinkhole from opening back up.

“I think it’s one of those things always going to be an issue,” he said. “The rock’s going to be there … far longer than any human influence, and so those conditions are always going to be present. As long as there’s water getting to it, there’s going to be a chance for sinkhole to form.”

Lawhon urged residents to contact the city if they observe what could be a sinkhole.

“If you see a hole in the ground, don’t hesitate to call us,” he said. “Keep your eyes on the ground and keep watching.”

To report a sinkhole, residents can call the city at 270-393-3628.