A vertical crack has formed between two walls in the Woodland Elementary School library, where the soil has settled and part of the building has dropped.
Brick walls are bulging and cracking, and concrete slabs are shifting and sinking.
During one weekend in August, a vertical crack as wide as about two inches opened between two walls in the library. Entire walls had shifted and the building had dropped after soil underneath it settled, said Allen Thacker, Oak Ridge Schools supervisor of maintenance and operations.
A structural engineer was called immediately, and already-planned repairs at Woodland Elementary School have now become a high priority.
