Another sinkhole has opened up on Route 80, near Exit 15 in Morris County.

But this time on the westbound side.

According to the state dot, the massive void opened yesterday evening while work crews were repairing a separate sinkhole on the east side of the highway, sparking even more delays and detours.

Now that both sides of the interstate are closed down in the same section, that's left state officials scrambling to figure out their next steps.

And drivers worried about whether the area is safe.

Ted Goldberg has the latest.

Earlier this week, knotty Pine Pub owner Jim Hill was skeptical when the Department of Transportation said work on I-80 eastbound would take two more months.

I'm hearing what they say at least two months, at least two months to six months to make the discovery of another sinkhole has complicated the reconstruction of I-80 and almost certainly means that nearby communities will endure heavy traffic for more than two months.

I'd say it's going to be another not till the fall before it gets done again.

You know, it opens up just they're going to find one after another there.

The traffic around Wharton has gotten a lot worse over the last month, and it's particularly terrible in the morning and afternoons.

So breakfast places like Pop's Bagel shop take a huge hit from customers who don't feel like dealing with all this extra traffic.

It's been horrible.

We're down about 25, 30% some days as much as 40%.

But this is while the eastbound lanes were closed.

Now the westbound lanes are closed, too.

And Yazan Mew says regulars might stay away longer.

We definitely miss them.

We haven't seen them in a long time.

They all live on the other side of town.

And with all this traffic, it really has a pain, has been a pain to get through here.

So we're seeing a lot of new faces, but it's not enough to sustain or even come near where we were prior to all this.

It's just sad to see.

It's so much traffic.

I'm 46 because we can see it from our house and we see the 18 wheelers.

I feel sorry for this business like this business that, you know, these truck drivers go by and eat.

They're not going to stop there.

They're in there in a big traffic jam.

The state's Department of Transportation says it's, quote, evaluating the situation after a 15 foot hole opened up in the median Wednesday.

It's just kind of scary that this is going on and like we're not really sure how long it's going to go on for.

Julianna Cool lives a few miles from Pop's and wasn't shocked to hear about the news of another sinkhole.

There's actually a sinkhole in my apartment complex, too.

So it's, it's kind of like there's this new threat of sinkholes that I never knew existed.

People in the apartment are speculating that after the earthquake last year, that it's kind of like exacerbated all of these sinkholes, like there was loose ground under there already.

And now after that, it's like starting to open up.

Much of this traffic comes from commuters.

New Horizons commute is normally 20 minutes.

Today, it took me about an hour and a half.

I mean, to think that we were driving underneath all this is definitely scary.

It's definitely disconcerting.

It's scary.

I'm not going to lie.

My mom is scared, too.

For me, like living out here.

I've heard that you're supposed to now, like, look for dips in the road.

I try to do what I can.

Yeah.

What do you.

What can you do besides speeding?

I tried to leave earlier from my house.

This is a problem that we didn't create, but it feels like we're owning it.

Mayor William SegWit and says he hopes federal funds can help local businesses that have suffered.

We asked about, you know, whether this is going to end up in FEMA.

So, you know, the locals can get some money.

You know, during COVID, they had covered money that came down.

In the meantime, Chuck Whitten says Wharton is organizing a small business walk to try and bring in revenue.

We're going to do it a couple of weekends.

So where you walk to all the different restaurants and you go in and what you'll do is sit down or we're going to have something.

It's a box box lunch.

You know, also we're talking about that also where your company can order a box lunch from some of our businesses to help them up.

Governor Phil Murphy has already declared a state of emergency.

The first step in getting federal funds to help rebuild I-80 and possibly help businesses which have taken heavy losses.

In Wharton, I'm Ted Goldberg.

NJ Spotlight News.