I've written about this somewhere on the forum before but I came across pictures of the incident. Six months to a year earlier, Verizon (or NY Telephone or NYNEX or whatever they were called then) put fiber optics in the ground where the shoulder was. Apparently they didn't do much compaction when they backfilled and the crane pulled to the side to let traffic pass. It immediately sunk to the axles in the soft soil. I thought I remembered two cranes being required to put it back on the pavement but the pictures show a heavier crane and tow truck to do the job. It took the whole day to get the job done. Based on the Sheriff's car I think this was in the early 80s.