Sinkhole keeps LaGuardia Airport runway closed

A LaGuardia Airport runway remained closed late Wednesday because of a sinkhole that earlier caused delays and cancellations of hundreds of flights.

Officials with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the airport, had been conducting routine inspections Wednesday when they discovered the sinkhole about 11 a.m. near Runway 4/22, according to a statement from the agency emailed to Newsday.

The runway was shut down and emergency construction and engineering crews responded to start repairs. That same runway was shuttered for several days after the fatal March 22 collision between an Air Canada Express jet and a fire truck.

News media images of crews Wednesday showed one worker standing in the waist-high sinkhole, which appeared to have room for several others.

The Port Authority did not identify what led the patch of runway to collapse. The agency did not provide updates on reopening the runway Wednesday evening but said repairs would be completed "as quickly and safely as possible."

Airlines and travelers were advised to expect delays and flight cancellations, especially with stormy weather, which began Wednesday evening. LaGuardia was reporting 321 delays and 250 cancellations as of 7:30 p.m. according to the flight tracking site Flight Aware.

"Travelers ... are strongly encouraged to check directly with their airlines for the latest flight status information," the Port Authority said.

The sinkhole was the second in less than a week to snarl travel plans in the area. Last Thursday, during the morning commute, one partially swallowed a car on the Long Island Expressway just east of the westbound ramp for Exit 49 North, closing a pair of lanes for several hours. The driver of the Honda sedan was transported to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries and later released.

"A contractor working under permit on a local municipal sewage project" likely caused the LIE sinkhole, the New York State Department of Transportation has said.

Long Island's subsurface is "relatively loose" material, which makes sinkholes "pretty common" for the region, Wei Li, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Stony Brook University told Newsday. The ground beneath "sometimes does not pack very well."

Aging infrastructure — underground water pipes that leak and erode soil, creating cavities that collapse concrete and asphalt — is a common culprit for sinkholes on Long Island.