For people who live and work in Mount Vernon, the latest sinkhole isn't much of a surprise.
"It's kinda worrisome, especially with some of the historical buildings here," said Daniel Ernst, who works nearby.
A portion of Cathedral Street was now shut down Tuesday, the latest casualty of infrastructure problems in the neighborhood.
Follow Catherine Hawley on Twitter @CatherineABC2 and like her on Facebook.
Many folks say they knew something was up when a depression in the road formed.
RELATED: Sinkhole in Mount Vernon causes road closures
"Noticed about a month ago that there was a straight line developing across the road," Ernst said. "So I knew something was lurking underneath, especially with all the other sinkholes we've had around in the area."
The roadway opened up Monday afternoon. Officials with the City Department of Public Works said the hole is about 20 feet across and 10 feet deep.
The culprit of the cave-in may be 40 feet down, the same century-old, 82-inch sewer main that caused the April sinkhole a block and a half away on West Centre Street, and the July crater a half-mile away on West Mulberry Street.
"What we think has happened, and we've seen this in other places on this line, is the top actually does develop a hole in it and that allows the Earth above it to sneak into that line," said Jeffrey Raymond, DPW Chief of Communications and Community Affairs.
When the dirt under the asphalt falls into the nearly seven-foot-wide main, that's when the street collapses. But officials still need to make sure that's exactly what's going on, because there is a lot down there.
"There are other utilities in there," Raymond said. "We know that there's a water main and there's a gas main, so BGE is on scene, they've secured the gas main."
The work on West Centre Street wrapped up a few weeks ago. The nearly $7 million dollar project on West Mulberry Street is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
Still, people in the area say the constant issues put local businesses in a pinch, and cause traffic headaches.
"There was delays, it slowed everything down," Rochelle Bailey said.
"It's kinda questionable when you're going up and down these roads with traffic what's really underneath you," Ernst said.
DPW officials say the next step is getting a camera into the sewer line to see if the pipe really is the problem. Once they know that for sure, they can get a game plan in place to fix it.
The repairs will likely be similar to what was done on Centre Street, including cleaning out the main and re-lining it. If that's the case, a section of Cathedral Street will need to be shut down for a few months.
Download the ABC2 News app for the iPhone, Kindleand Android.
