Lawmakers Push Bipartisan Bill to Find and Fix Hundreds of Abandoned NJ Mines
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, The terrifying six-month shutdown of Route 80 near Wharton due to sinkholes—a disaster that ultimately cost taxpayers $30 million—was a direct result of abandoned, unfilled mining shafts beneath the highway. Now, as the one-year anniversary of the initial collapse approaches, two influential state senators are demanding action to prevent this “costly and dangerous” problem from recurring.
State Senators Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) and Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) have introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at tackling New Jersey’s vast network of abandoned mines, a hidden threat that poses a major risk to infrastructure, property, and human life.
The Hidden Threat: A Legacy of ‘Forgotten’ Mines
New Jersey’s rich mining history, dating back to the 18th century, left behind hundreds of empty voids that are essentially ticking time bombs under its busiest roads and communities.
- The Scale: State officials estimate there are at least 588 abandoned mines in North Jersey alone, with “hundreds more” potentially scattered across the rest of the state.
- The Danger: As timber supports rot and the ground weakens over time, these subsurface voids can collapse, triggering the sudden and destructive sinkholes that crippled I-80 traffic and commerce for half a year.
“The I-80 sinkhole disaster showed just how quickly a single infrastructure failure can severely disrupt commuting, commerce and daily life,” said Senator Bucco. “It is essential to restore and improve the structural foundation that led to this crisis.”
The Solution: A Proactive Reclamation Program
The legislation, recently approved unanimously by the Senate Transportation Committee, mandates the creation of an Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program within the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT).
This initiative would require the state to take a proactive approach rather than a reactive one:
- Catalogue & Map: The NJDOT must first produce a comprehensive mapping of all abandoned mines in the state.
- Identify High-Risk Sites: The department must then rank the most serious sites—those posing “the greatest threat to human life, safety, property and infrastructure.“
- Reclaim & Stabilize: Finally, the program would move to “reclaim, backfill, stabilize, or otherwise render safe” the dangerous voids, an initiative that could take decades to complete.
Senator Sarlo, whose district felt the ripple effects of the I-80 closure, emphasized that these sinkholes are “damaging, dangerous and costly,” and a permanent solution is required to protect communities.
The $30 Million Question: Who Pays?
While the bill has bipartisan support, it currently includes no specific funding or timeline. It does, however, direct the state to establish a permanent fund dedicated solely to reclamation projects. This fund would be sourced from legislative appropriations, federal grants, and private donations, ensuring a sustainable mechanism to address this long-term geological threat.
The initial cost of the emergency repairs on I-80 swelled to $30 million, a figure that doesn’t account for the steep revenue losses suffered by local businesses during the months of detour chaos. This new legislation is designed to prevent that kind of economic and infrastructural blow from ever happening again.
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