Crews Working to Repair Park Street Sink Hole

A crew worked to repair a sink hole under Park Street near Webb Avenue (between Lincoln and Santa Clara avenues) Wednesday afternoon.

The hole was discovered this morning as a contractor and his crew set to work on what they expected would be just a simple sewer pipe repair. Instead, they found a large cavern under the street.

"Now we're in emergency repair mode," said Matthew Naclerio, head of Alameda's Public Works Department. 

Usually, said Naclerio, a broken sewer lateral (the pipe which brings waste from each building to the main sewer under the street) is cracked and creates a small gap as soil and gravel flows into the sewer, leaving a space. 

In this case, the hole is quite large, extending at least, said Naclerio, to the center of Park Street.

"What may have happened here is that a whole section of the pipe was cracked or broken," said Naclerio. "To make such a big hole it had to be more than just a regular leak."

"It's very, very unusual for something like this to happen," said Naclerio, who said it was only because of the thickness of the asphalt above the cavern that the street did not collapse under the weight of the heavy trucks and buses that regularly make their way up and down Park.

From the top, before the repair, the only sign of trouble was a small dip in the roadway, Naclerio said.

As of 1:30 p.m. two lanes of Park Street were closed and two were open. Naclerio said he hoped that they would able to continue to allow some traffic to pass as crews work on the repair through the evening.

"Though, if we need to close all the lanes to keep everyone safe, then we will," Naclerio said. 

The pipe and hole should be repaired by tomorrow, said Naclerio, with a temporary layer of asphalt on the top.

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