Fixing a sinkhole that opened up in a street near an elementary school and preschool in Atlanta's Morningside area is turning out to be a much bigger job than city crews initially thought, Channel 2 Action News reported.
The hole appeared Thursday afternoon just north of the intersection of East Sussex Road at East Rock Springs Road and west of Emory University. It measures only 6 feet across on the surface, but below ground it’s 10 feet deep and spreads out to about 20 feet wide.
Janet Ward with the Atlanta Watershed Management Department, said the sinkhole was caused by a collapsed storm water line at 1012 Cumberland Road, just south of the opening.
Sussex will remain shut through the weekend from the sinkhole northward to the edge of East Rock Springs Road, Ward said. Rock Springs will remain open to traffic.
Repairs should be completed by the end of the weekend, weather permitting, she said.
The proximity of the hole to Haygood Preschool, at Haygood United Methodist Church, and to Morningside Elementary School has school officials and parents concerned.
Terry Pons, Haygood Preschool director, told Channel 2 that the crevasse started out as just a pothole Thursday but grew progressively bigger.
Staff thought to put out traffic cones to warn passersby, Pons said, "and by the time they started to put the cones out, the ground sunk in."
"It’s a real cave," she said. "It was scary and thrilling at the same time for the children who had just been let out [of school]."
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