Sinkhole on LIE: 2 lanes westbound closed for at least 24 hours at Exit 49 after car falls in

A car fell into a large sinkhole on the Long Island Expressway on Thursday afternoon, closing two westbound lanes for at least 24 hours near Melville while highway crews made emergency repairs.

As of 5 a.m. Friday, two lanes remained closed near Exit 49 North for Route 110 to Huntington as emergency construction continued, according to the New York State Department of Transportation's 511NY website.

The department said late Thursday that a timeline to fully reopen the highway was not available but that it was looking “to fully reopen [the LIE] sometime tomorrow."

Suffolk County police had originally closed three westbound lanes after a Honda became lodged in the hole, described as 8 feet deep and 10 feet wide.

"The sinkhole appears to have been caused by a contractor working under permit on a local municipal sewage project," the department added in a news release. "Work is beginning this evening to secure the area and install new asphalt pavement. The right and center lanes of the westbound expressway will remain closed until the repairs have been completed."

The highway department advised drivers to use the North Service Road or the Northern State Parkway as alternate routes. 

No injuries were reported, police said.

Officials urged commuters to find alternative routes. Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services warned of significant traffic delays expected through the network of surrounding roads.

Those seeking an alternate route could turn to the Northern and Southern State parkways, as well as Sunrise Highway, said Robert Sinclair Jr., senior manager of public affairs at AAA Northeast.

While sinkholes are often viewed as a natural phenomenon — when groundwater erodes bedrock, "creating underground cavities that eventually collapse" — these are not the type of sinkholes that befall Long Island’s roadways, according to Te Pei, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Stony Brook University.

Sinkholes on the Island are generally caused by subsurface soil erosion due to aging infrastructure. The storm drainage, utility lines or other pipes that run beneath roadways begin to leak, allowing water "to erode the sandy road base from below," Pei said in an email to Newsday.

"Over time, that process can create a hidden void beneath the pavement," Pei added. "Once the void becomes large enough, the pavement may suddenly collapse under its own weight and traffic loading."

While aging infrastructure is a concern on Long Island, a sinkhole does not mean the pipeline underneath the expressway has exceeded its lifespan. Pei said pipelines can deteriorate "because of corrosion, joint separation, cracking, repeated traffic vibration, poor bedding or backfill, freeze-thaw cycles, groundwater effects, root intrusion, or high stormwater flow during heavy rainfall. Even a small pipe-joint defect can initiate internal erosion: water may either escape from the pipe or enter it through the defect, carrying sandy soil away and gradually enlarging a subsurface void."

The sinkhole comes at a time when roads departments across the Island are busy making smaller scale repairs — and some other high-profile infrastructure failures.

This year's harsh winter has resulted in a rough pothole season, as repeated freezing and thawing can cause cracks in pavement. In February, after a video showing a hole in the deck of the Fire Island Inlet Bridge went viral, the state transportation department shut it down for emergency repairs and recently went back for more.

On the bridge to Smith Point County Park, travel was restricted to one lane in November after a state inspection "revealed structural deterioration," Newsday has reported. Ponquogue Bridge in Hampton Bays, which connects to Dune Road, was closed in February 2025 due to deterioration of the concrete girders, before being reopened to limited travel.

In 2024, 61% of state-owned lane-miles were in good or excellent condition across New York, an improvement from 54% five years earlier, according to official reports, which do not break out data by region.

Newsday's Peter Gill contributed to this story.