Repairs Continue After Sinkhole Opens in Gravesend

By Adam Daly, Brooklyn Paper

Repairs are ongoing on Bay 37th Street and Cropsey Avenue after a water main break caused a small sinkhole to appear on Monday morning, temporarily leaving local residents without water.

The modest crater was first reported just before 4 a.m. on September 9, after the break flooded the street outside a Gravesend apartment complex, which was lined with parked cars.

The city’s Department of Environmental Protection said its crews arrived on the scene shortly after the report to find “a water condition with street undermining” and a black SUV stuck in the collapsed roadway. Fortunately, there were no injuries reported, according to the FDNY, who first responded to the incident.

According to DEP, its crews immediately turned off the water supply to prevent further flooding. Repair works got underway once a tow truck pulled the trapped vehicle from the sinkhole.

During the shutdown, the department it set up two portable faucets so impacted residents could have access to drinking water. Some 168 households — three residential buildings and 16 private homes — were impacted by the water shutdown that lasted from 4 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday afternoon. DEP crews will remain at the site to complete restoration of the sidewalk and street.

According to local Assemblyman William Colton, the street repairs may continue until Friday.

After visiting the site this afternoon, Colton praised the city’s quick response to the water main break but called for an investigation into aging infrastructure to avoid future flooding and sinkholes.

“It’s good that the city responded quickly to this emergency situation,” said Colton. “However, that being said, the infrastructure in the area is a century old, and is likely increasingly fragile. It seems to me that the city needs to do an evaluation of the state of the water mains, and replace those that could potentially cause problems such as this one.”

Southern Brooklyn is no stranger to sinkholes, with the area seeing several road cave-ins in the last few years. A massive sinkhole split opened a Bay Ridge street in January, and neighboring Sunset Park suffered two sinkholes over the space of nine months in 2016.

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.

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