Crews stabilize Mission Street sinkhole

Officials said crews began work Wednesday on a broken sewer main that caused a sinkhole Tuesday evening on Mission Street in the city’s Yerba Buena neighborhood.

Work began this morning to stabilize the 12-by-5-foot sinkhole, which is 9 feet deep, on Mission Street between New Montgomery and Second streets. The hole opened up at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials said.

The work will prepare the area so crews can replace the broken 3-by-5-foot brick sewer main that dates from 1875. The age of the main is one reason it broke, according to the utility.

No one was injured when the sinkhole formed, although the front end of a vehicle got caught in it when it first opened up, SFPUC officials said. Police were able to help the occupants out of the vehicle and the vehicle was pulled out afterward.

Once crews receive a replacement sewer pipe, work will begin Friday to install it. The pipe is 36 inches in diameter and repairs are tentatively scheduled to be complete by Sunday.

Until then, crews will install a bypass pipe, according to the utility.

Sewer service has not been and will not be affected. Water service is unaffected, SFPUC spokesman Charles Sheehan said.

One lane in both directions of Mission Street is open between New Montgomery and Second streets and buses have resumed service through the area, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

SFPUC officials said the break highlights the urgent need for the city to upgrade its combined stormwater and sewer system, which is about 100 years old.