Part of State Route 516 in Tuscarawas County collapsed on Wednesday afternoon.

It happened around 3p.m. near Bair Road. ODOT officials say a rapid drawdown of a nearby sand and gravel operation is to blame.

"What happened was there's an actual sand and gravel operation that is 150 feet from the road and apparently they were dredging the sand in the afternoon," said ODOT District Deputy Director Lloyd MacAdams. "They started a rapid drawdown and it just continued to drawdown, drawdown."

Officials say a collapse took a massive portion of the road down more than 50 feet, exposed a gas line and sunk utility poles.

When it first happened, officials closed down 8 miles along the roadway from state Route 39 to state Route 93.

And now they are saying the roadway could be closed until the spring. Engineers and the Department of Natural Resources will be out to take a look in the morning.

"I've worked for ODOT 16 years now and I've never seen anything like this," said MacAdams. "This is very unusual situation. You would never think this pond would make it to the state route."