ST. LOUIS – A sinkhole that caved in Tuesday night next to Interstate 55 in south St. Louis may have been years in the making.

Records show residents have made more than a dozen reports to the City of St. Louis for sidewalks and streets caving in, as well as potholes, since 2011. All of the reports are in the same spot, too, on Idaho Avenue at the I-55 off-ramp.

Though Idaho Avenue was open for neighborhood traffic, the off-ramp had been closed for an I-55 construction project.

“Fortunately, it was closed. That (sinkhole) would have killed somebody,” Greg Robinson, nearby resident, said. “When you would get off at the Loughborough exit, there was always a hump here. They would repair that hump probably every year and then within two to three months it would dip again. I kept telling somebody it’s got to be sinking under there. Sooner or later, it’s going to collapse.”

And it did just that Tuesday night. One resident felt the ground shaking under his feet at the time of the collapse. Thankfully, no one was in harm’s way.

The sinkhole expanded as the hours passed Wednesday morning. By late afternoon, it was 40 feet wide and estimated to be 20–30 feet deep.

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A city water department crew responded to a report of pavement erosion with water in the street on Tuesday night. The crew closed the street and marked it for digging.

Paul Goodman was working on a nearby house and drove right over this spot on his way home on Tuesday.

“I came around and turned right where the hole is. When I came in this morning, I was going, ‘Oh man, give me a break,” Goodman said. “ I could have been in that hole!”

Experts say leaking water likely washed away the rock and Earth supporting the pavement.

Water was gushing from a 6-inch city water main after the collapse.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District replaced the manhole at the location in April 2021 amid reports of sinking pavement. Most of the pavement was replaced as part of that project.

“When you have flowing water underground, it’s got to go somewhere,” Bess McCoy, Public Information Officer for MSD, said.  “It often takes the dirt with it. Especially in this area where we have really old infrastructure, these breaks happen.”

An MSD crew was inspecting its lines in the area with a robotic camera after the collapse and found no immediate sign of a sewer main issue, McCoy said.

MSD and the City of St. Louis Water Division may spar in the coming days on who pays for the costly repair, but maybe this time the issues will be fixed for good.

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