Growing Sinkhole In South City Neighborhood Causing Serious Safety Concerns

CBS St. Louis

March 20, 2021

A growing sinkhole in south St. Louis City is raising serious safety concerns for neighbors. Kaleb Kirby said the hole started about two months ago and is now several feet deep. “It’s not getting better, that’s for sure," Kirby said. “I would say at this point it’s 4 and a half feet.” Kirby said he's called the Citizens' Service Bureau and the city multiple times about the sinkhole. “It’s a huge safety issue because you have no idea what it’s going to do," Kirby said. The city came out about a month and a half ago, Kirby said, filled the hole with gravel and put up barricade signs. “About a week and a half ago with all this crazy weather lately that’s when serious sinking started happening again," Kirby said. Kirby's request is one of 16,558 requests the Citizens' Service Bureau has received so far in 2021. In 2020, the CSB received 109,227 requests and 110,897 in 2019. Those requests can be made over the phone, web, or Twitter and some can be multiple reports for the same issue. “This isn’t some offset neighborhood. We have a coffee shop and another vegan restaurant over there," Kirby said. "There’s a lot of public residents over here. Not everyone knows to avoid this area." Alderman Dan Guenther, who represents Benton Park, said a water main break up the street caused the sinkhole to form. He said the leak has been fixed, but MSD still needs to fix the sewer drain before the hole can be filled. We called MSD. MSD said it was not aware of the issue, but sent a crew out immediately to investigate. “I bet you if nothing happens to this in the next week and a half, something more will collapse into the street," Kirby said. MSD plans to send a crew on Monday with a camera to figure out the issue that's causing the sinkhole to continue growing.