Subsidence-Control Project In The Belleville-Maryville Area, Illinois (3ede9e31-217e-4eeb-9d89-3dccef8689e8)

Subsidence movements have damaged houses, schools, streets, and public utility lines in some undermined sections of Belleville and Maryville, Ill. In cooperation with local officials and the State of Illinois, the Interior Department's Bureau of Mines is sharing experience in backfilling abandoned coal mines to demonstrate that bituminous coal mine workings in south-western Illinois can be successfully backfilled and subsidence-prone areas stabilized. Subsurface investigations revealed that mine workings are dry and underlain by underclay deposits susceptible to instability upon wetting. Backfilling will therefore be accomplished by pneumatic injection instead of the hydraulic methods used in previous subsidence-control projects.