Interesting, while the original story linked says the hole is 200 feet deep,
an AP News story lists it at 100 feet. Can't somebody get out a tape measure and settle this matter?
Out of morbid curiosity, I wanted to know how many dump-truck loads of dirt it would take to fill the sink-hole. Using the measurements from the AP New link (66 feet across x 100 feet deep), I calculate that there is approximately 342,257 cubic feet of hole that needs to be filled in. The average three-axle dump truck can hold about 10 cubic yards or 270 cubic feet. So, about 1,268 trips of the dump truck would be required (not accounting for further erosion, compaction, etc.).
I was curious about how many trips the Liebherr TI 274 would require.
Since all the capacity ratings for this beast are given in terms of weight and not volume, a little conversion was required. Using 1,000 pounds as the weight of one cubic yard of top soil (highly variable due to moisture content), this would mean that the hole requires about 6,338 tons of dirt. Since the TI 274 can handle about 320 tons per load, this truck would only require about 20 loads of dirt. I think they should use one of these
