ST. LOUIS – Cleanup at a north St. Louis City sinkhole began Tuesday as the Metropolitan Sewer District seeks the root cause of the problem.
“What we had here was a collapsed sewer. Over a 100-year-old brick sewer. We know that it collapsed,” Bess McCoy, MSD public affairs manager, said. “We don’t know what’s under it, though, and so what they’re doing is clearing out that hole, removing debris, so that we can get a clear picture of what happened.”
Sinkholes of this size are not common here. The amount of rain St. Louis has seen in the month of April alone likely only added to the issue, as moisture percolated through joints in the older limestone under the road.
“It’s hard to say for sure if the weather was a huge factor in this until we get that investigation done,” McCoy said. “We’re not entirely sure what the full picture is, but we had a lot of rains recently. That certainly doesn’t help. Typically, the way these form, they don’t form overnight, but the more water that’s flowing through the ground, the more its can erode away and then the more you get a cave like this.”
After removing the debris from the sinkhole, located at Cass Ave and 18th Street, MSD will work closely with the city and other municipalities to locate the cause of where the problem stems and what repairs are needed.
While this is not an overnight fix, MSD does not expect for repairs to last longer than a month.
While the investigation of the city pothole is underway, MSD wants to remind everyone that if they see something like this growing along these lines, to contact them immediately so assessments can be made.