News 12 at 6 o'clock; October 9, 2008

BURNETTOWN, S.C. --- Only on 12, we went out to check on sink hole problems on Caroline Road in Burnettown. Turns out, the hole was fixed, but the road wasn't paved. That unpaved road gave way to another hole with the recent rain. News 12 made some calls and got some action, in just one day.

It's a road that's seeing a hole lot of problems.

"I don't think they've done a good job on it," says Robert Krepps. "They were slow getting to it."

About 5 months slow and Robert Krepps who lives near the holes, is seeing it all.

"They need to come back and finish the work. It's been long enough; it's aggravating," says Krepps.

Last month, News 12 showed up to the massive sink holes that shut the road down. Then, the DOT showed up and the work started. We were told about two weeks after the work started, it would be finished. That, was three weeks ago.

Police Chief DP Smith says there were problems with the crew at first. Then, people called News 12 saying the holes were fixed but the road was not paved. Turns out, they are right.

"I think it's a bad job. They didn't come back and finish the drainage on the sides," says Robert.

So, now there's gravel over the fixed sink holes and now, another collapse. News 12 called Chief Smith and he got right on the phone with the state DOT. He explains the possible problem with the new collapse. "They got rocks there that control the erosion just on this side. They didn't have it built up and if you don't have it, it's going to go there."

"Whether or not it could have been prevented, that is for them to answer," says Chief Smith. That's an answer News 12 tried to get several times on Thursday, but the DOT did not return any of our phone calls. But, they did roll out the trucks on Thursday afternoon to fix the newest collapse after the Chief's calls.

"They should have come back and done something before," says Robert.

While the DOT did not return our phone calls on Thursday, we did hear from a lawmaker in the area who talked to an engineer about the paving problem. We're told the road will be paved as soon as the state can get a crew from outside of Aiken County to come to Burnettown and pave the road. So, for now, it's a wait and see game.

Chief Smith says other than this problem, the DOT has been working very well with the town.

We tried to find out how much money was spent on these problems, but again, our calls from the DOT were not returned. We'll continue to follow this story and keep you posted as the work happens.