Most of us in State College, PA know Memorial Field for the quaint sporting venue that it is. Most of the locals also know that it sits on a pretty large sinkhole.
A Brief History-The school district acquired the sinkhole, I mean field, back in 1914 when it was purchased for $3,042 from a local resident. At the time it was being used as the town dump. A few years later the district improved the "Hollow" into a playground. In the 1920's the local Rotary Club paid to have a running track installed around the perimeter. In the 1930's the school district developed a plan to create a full size football field and playground. One of the administrators suggested they apply for a WPA grant which was accepted. The first football game was played here in 1937. In the early 2000's an artificial turf field was installed as well. Throughout the years flooding of the field was becoming more and more apparent during heavy rains. As it turns out, more than 45 acres of storm water from the State College Borough flows into the sink hole beneath Memorial Field. Recently the School District discovered that the piers that the home side bleachers sat on were beginning to subside and had to be closed. After several years and many negotiations the State College Borough agreed to take care of some sink hole remediation if the school district paid the engineering costs.
The Current Project-Over the last several weeks the Borough has excavated the sink hole in order to install a reverse filter over top of the sink hole. Excavation went to over 30 feet deep until workers uncovered the throat of the sink hole which wasn't where anyone thought it was.
Fortunately, shortly after the throat was uncovered a major rainstorm passed through which allowed workers and engineers to see how the sink hole reacted to heavy rains. 
Once the hole was completed excavated, a large, perforated concrete structure was installed over top of the sink hole throat to channel the storm waters directly to the throat itself. Large rock is being used to fill the remainder of the hole which will transition to smaller gravel and then back to field level. Eventually new bleachers will be installed over the sinkhole. In the mean time temporary bleachers will be installed until a major renovation of the bleacher area can be completed.
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