Orange traffic cones prevent motorists from driving over a hole and depressed area of pavement along Route 209 near Kennedy Park in Lansford.

Borough streets crews placed the cones around the hole, which appears to be expanding from when the borough contacted the state Department of Transportation about it earlier this week, Council President Bruce Markovich said on Friday. The borough originally believed it to be a pothole along the state highway, he said.

The hole appears to be deepening and the pavement is depressed around the chasm, Markovich said. He reached out to PennDOT again on Friday morning regarding the hole near the double yellow line in the center of the highway. The streets crew placed a broom handle down the center of the hole and it did not reach the bottom, he said.

The borough did check the location of its large sewer tunnel, which runs underneath the highway, and found that it is not close enough to the problem area, he said.

A PennDOT spokesman said Friday afternoon that they were informed that the borough was investigating a failed utility, and a camera was going to be used to find the cause.