ROAD COLLAPSES, CREATES LARGE SINKHOLE ON LOS EBANOS; PUB BLAMES BROKEN SEWER FORCE MAIN FOR MISHAP

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Just a little after 4 p.m. Tuesday, city emergency crews detected a major sewer force main rupture that created a large sinkhole on the street section just west of the Los Ebanos/Paredes Line Road intersection.

The hole measures about 25 by 20 feet wide, big enough to swallow a small car. Responders did not know whether the weight of passing vehicles had caused the roadway to collapse or whether motorists had seen the hole as they approached it.

But today a Public Utility Board crew supervisor this morning said the force sewer main - which services the neighborhoods around the intersection of Paredes and Los Ebanos - was detected by a crew that had been sent to sound out the system.

Fire and police department officers said no one was hurt as a result of the collapse and said the roadway will be closed to traffic from both directions until it was fixed and a new road base filled in and the asphalt replaced.

"The force of the sewage pumped by the force main is just as if it was water pumped at high pressure," the PUB supervisor said. "We are pumping the sewage that spilled out into a sewage manhole nearby and then Pubic Works can come in and work on the road."

The brown water swirled below the broken asphalt and it was apparent that large sections under the roadway had been eroded by the liquefied sewage for some time before the road surface collapsed. A strong smell of sewage emanated from the hole with the swirling brown water, leading to speculation that main sewage main had broken through a drain ditch is nearby.

The level of erosion visible at street level indicates that a large volume of effluent her been flowing below the street or some time. The drainage ditch nearby is at a much lower level than the street surface, making it unlikely that it is the source of the runoff visible from street level.

Motorists are warned to seek alternate means to traverse the area.