residents of an apartment complex that was built on top of an abandoned mineshaft are questioning whether their homes are safe now that three sinkholes have opened up nearby along I80 in just the last few months Since then neighbors say fractures above doorways in their apartments have appeared along with cracks in their walls and on the roof An engineering report revealed there's no risk of collapse but as Ted Goldberg reports the people who live there aren't buying it It's scary cuz it's only a couple hundred feet away So if a sinkhole can open up randomly in the middle of 80 why wouldn't it happen right underneath our parking garage or right underneath our building which is right here The New Jersey Department of Transportation is hard at work to fill these sink holes People in the Avalon Wharton apartment building know that because they get a front row seat Residents like Liam Gavin are concerned not just with the noises and lights but also the structural integrity of their building itself which is a football field or two away from heavy construction and built on top of an abandoned mineshaft I was just really disappointed in the overall response I think the Avalon is completely crooked and covering up everything just to line their pockets or just to save face Gavin and Elelliana Divvidu have lived here for about 2 years They reached out to their management after discovering more cracks showing up around their building And then when the sinkhole happened I started taking a little bit more um take looking a little bit deeper into those cracks and they have significantly progressed from the appearance of the first sinkhole It wasn't really until the second sinkhole opened up end of February and simultaneously we started noticing all these different cracks all over the building and uh questions of the building structural integrity came to light and the response was basically there's nothing wrong with the building everything is fine and we're basically overreacting Um when that dismissive email came in that's when we decided to contact the mayor Mayor William Chewitten served on Wharton's planning board when the building was built 13 years ago and still sits on the board today After he was contacted the state's Department of Community Affairs got involved Part of the DCA inspection process is that the building has to get their own private inspectors who are certified by the DCA Residents say they have serious doubts about the engineering firms that were hired And so who does the Avalon hire They hire the two engineering firms that helped to build the building which is a blatant conflict of interest because they're going to be liable for any mistakes that were made And while I expect them to do the right thing and have a truthful report I find it hard to believe that they're willing to accept any mistakes that they may have made while building the building Mayor Cheg Whitten who did not respond to our request for comment has said this building is safe to live in And so did two engineering firms who looked things over Vitas engineers said observed cracks gaps bumps and wearing do not appear to be recently developed and are consistent with the expected loading settlement shrinkage and general wear of a building of this age and construction type No structurally significant damage to structural elements was observed Needless to say residents are skeptical I'm very uncomfortable I'm scared every day Um I I don't want to be here but unfortunately being on maternity leave and going through my savings because of that I don't really have the space to just up and leave at the moment I have not paid rent in 2 months Uh I have put instead the amounts that I would normally pay into an escrow account Uh because according to New Jersey state uh safe habitation law you don't need to pay rent to a building that's unsafe Turns out there are more than 500 abandoned mines statewide at least that are mapped out Many of these recent sinkholes are caused by mine shafts falling into the earth They don't just collapse overnight They collapse after years of things going wrong with them Ale Gates is a distinguished service professor at Rucker Newark and says it's hard work to investigate why mine shafts collapse They're all flooded and nobody is going to put the time and energy into into draining them So there are some geohysical techniques that you could be using over these mines to figure out where the mines are Uh but I there's you know I know pretty much the people that do this type of stuff and none of them are doing it right now Less than one mile away from Avalon Wharton the Mountain View Manor apartment complex has had a sinkhole in their parking lot although it hasn't been confirmed if it was caused by a mine shaft As the ground continues to thaw this area could see more sink holes and all the chaos that comes with them In Morris County I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News [Music]