120-year-old sewer pipe to blame for sinkhole in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood

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A massive sinkhole that opened up Sunday at a downtown Minneapolis intersection was caused by the collapse of a clay sewer pipe that has been in use since 1903, officials said Monday.

Curtis Stallings, general foreman of sewer construction for the city, said the already age-stressed sewer pipe collapsed after this year’s high-frequency freeze-thaw cycle and melting snow steep.

Stallings said a temporary bypass was planned for Tuesday and new permanent PVC pipe would be installed by Wednesday, and the street should be repaired by April 21.

The sinkhole, about 10 feet deep and 5 feet wide, opened up in the middle of the intersection of W. 27th Street and Girard Avenue S. On Monday, workers were diagnosing the hole from inside, descending under the street and worked inside a trench shield, a reinforced caisson intended to protect them in the event of a rockslide.

Meanwhile, residents of the surrounding neighborhood could still flush the toilet because the city is running a rotation of vacuum trucks that can collect the equivalent of two blocks of sewage at a time.

“We’ve invested in vehicles and things to make sure people can go about their daily lives,” said Stallings, who was less baffled by the circumference of the chasm than by all the people with cameras swarming it. . He’s seen bigger chasms in his 18 years at Public Works, he said.

CenterPoint Energy workers were also on site to check the condition of the nearby gas line.

The issue comes as public works crews tackle a plethora of potholes in Minneapolis. The city has pledged an additional $1 million to fill the city’s pock-marked streets.

“And yet another terrifying landmark on the way to work,” Frances Kittery wrote on Facebook, referring to the sinkhole.

Others also commented on the view, which became a mini tourist attraction on Sunday.

“Right next to my apartment,” Olivia Hope Matteo posted on social media along with photos of the crater. “A big huge sinkhole in the middle of the street.”

Minneapolis City Council member Aisha Chughtai said Monday that residents should watch for crumbling asphalt around manhole covers as snow continues to melt and send images, so that public works can try to catch potential sinkholes before they form.

Another large sinkhole, about six feet wide, collapsed into a pathway near 57th Avenue on the central Brooklyn side of the Northern Mississippi Regional Park early last week.

Danny McCulloch, regional trail network manager for the Three Rivers Park District, said the trail was immediately closed for repair work that was scheduled to begin Monday. The sinkhole is located in an area of ​​the park that was closed and not plowed for the winter, but was about to reopen, he said.

The cause of this sinkhole was not yet known, but McCulloch speculated that a break in the storm drain culvert that runs under the trail was to blame.

“If there’s any failure of that culvert, the water comes out and starts flowing outside,” he said. “Then it takes the ground away. And that’s probably what’s going on there. But until the repair work starts, we won’t really know exactly until we dig it all up.”

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