Meet Sunset Park’s other giant sinkhole!
A mass of asphalt three car-lengths long fell into 56th Street near Fifth Avenue on the morning of March 1, forming Sunset Park’s second great sinkhole in the last nine months. Emergency responders reacted quickly closing off the street to traffic, but the city needs to act pro-actively to prevent future cave-ins, a local leader said.
“It keeps happening, I think they’re not taking care of our infrastructure,” said Sunset Park Business Improvement District director Renee Giordano. “It’s frustrating for us and hopefully they work on this a little faster, the sinkhole on 64th street hasn’t been given priority or emergency status.”
The chasm opened sometime before noon, neighbors said.
Workers from gas-provider National Grid, electricity-provider Con Edison, and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection — which presides over both sewers and drinking water supply — descended on the breach and cut the block’s gas supply on Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities have not announced what caused the sinkhole.
One resident who lives in a building directly in front of the chasm told this paper that water began flowing into her basement through an underground electrical conduit to the street two weeks ago, and she and suspects her situation and the gigantic hole in front of her building are related. Water continued to trickle in on Tuesday, and the woman fears the problem will negatively impact her family and kids in her building before it gets any better, she said.
“I hope they fix it as soon as possible, before it gets worse because we don’t know what could happen if that water keeps coming in,” 31-year resident Milly Velez said. “ I just want them to fix it as soon as possible so we have electricity and water for the babies — I worry about them.”
