BALTIMORE — The waters have receded now in a sinkhole that spans all lanes of Nieman Avenue in Southwest Baltimore, allowing crews to remove heavy debris from the collapsed roadway.
While the crater consumed a truck with a trailer, a tow truck has since pulled both out for the owner.
“He was lucky. When I got here yesterday and I saw his truck in the hole so he definitely dodged a bullet with that one,” said Contractor Robert Harrington who adds an initial sinkhole formed in the street last week and a larger one on Sunday after one of the city’s century-old water mains broke, “We’re out here repairing a 12-inch water main and an 18-inch storm drain and trying to fix the base so we can install the new utilities.”
The gushing water from both pipes swept sand and other fill into neighboring properties, as well as knocking out their water service.
“We haven’t had water since last Thursday,” said Andrew Portare of Electronic Value Recovery, “They gave us some intermediate water back on Sunday, which allowed our cleaning crew to come in and clean, but we’re on SpotPots and hand-washing stations right now at our facility.”
Crews here repairing the infrastructure, refilling the hole and resurfacing the street should take about two weeks to complete.”
Questions remain over how the owner of the swamped truck and trailer will fair, since we’re told he only carried liability insurance and could hardly be held responsible for a street collapsing beneath them.
“He wasn’t very happy,” said Portare, “He definitely said that he’s going to try to work with the city to see who is accountable for it. It was a brand new trailer. They were able to pull it out, but it’s got some damage on it.”
