Fascinated.
That’s how Brandon Sperry, a co-owner of Myrtle & Cypress Coffeehouse, described his and other people’s reaction to a large sinkhole that developed along 33rd Street just south of the Cass Street intersection in midtown Omaha on Tuesday evening.
The sizable hole formed after a sewer line broke about 20 feet under the road, said Austin Rowser, who is the city’s deputy public works director, in an email. Rowser theorized that heavy rains from the last few weeks filled the line to excess and began eroding soil out of the pipe into cracks and thus ultimately enlarging the hole.
“At some point, there just wasn’t enough soil left to support the pavement and the hole opened up,” Rowser wrote.
The hole measured about 10 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep before a crew began the repair process, Rowser wrote.
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On Wednesday afternoon, the crew, which Sperry said had been working all day, could be seen removing broken concrete, dirt and other debris from the sinkhole and loading those materials into a dump truck.
The hole developed pretty suddenly, Sperry said. He, his wife and their two children had driven over that portion of the road on their way to play pickleball at the adjacent Gifford Park tennis courts. By the time they came back around 7:45 p.m., Sperry said, the sinkhole had been there for about 30 minutes.
“That was a little jarring,” he said.
Shortly after the hole formed, police officers arrived to block off public access to the sinkhole while a public works crew came out to put up barricades.
Life went on as normal Wednesday. No utility services were disrupted, said Metropolitan Utilities District Communications Director Tracey Christensen. No calls for fire or ambulance services were logged, according to an Omaha Fire Department spokesman.
Myrtle & Cypress customers enjoyed their beverages, conversations and the free Wi-Fi. Just up the street, Community Bike Project of Omaha staff members worked on a bicycle for Omaha resident Shelli Corzine.
“It seems like everybody else in the neighborhood is operating as usual,” said Jacob Stacy, a shop manager at Community Bike Project.
The city has closed a one-block portion of 33rd Street between Cass and Chicago Streets for two weeks as crews replace the damaged sewer pipe.