A section of inner Lake Shore Drive will remain closed for several days to repair a sinkhole after a water main burst under the road early Friday, sending a geyser into the air and flooding basements and garages.
Officials hope to replace the broken pipe by Saturday morning but said it could take three days to patch a 43-by-50-foot crater that swallowed four parked cars. No injuries were reported.
The Inner Drive between Addison Street and Belmont Avenue will remain closed until repair work is complete, officials said.
The 36-inch, concrete feeder main burst about 3:20 a.m. under the 3500 block of the Inner Drive, emptying thousands of gallons of water onto the street before it was shut off at 5:45 a.m. Crews had trouble shutting off the water because the valves were submerged and not easily detectable, said Water Commissioner Richard Rice.
Police initially closed all lanes on outer Lake Shore Drive from Hollywood Avenue to Belmont as the damage was inspected. The four northbound lanes reopened at 6:30 a.m., two southbound lanes were open by 7:30 a.m., and a third opened at midday, officials said. A southbound lane remained closed Friday night.
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Officials were unsure Friday what caused the water main to break and said it would have to be dug up and sent to a laboratory for testing. The final cause may not be known for two weeks.
“It could be the failure of the street or the integrity of the pipe. It could be a number of reasons,” Rice said, including corrosion or a problem with the steel reinforcement inside the concrete.
He said that it was unusual the pipe did not break at a joint and that it was only 31 years old. “They are designed for a 100-year life,” he said.
For a short time, area water pressure was down, officials said. But no residents were without gas or water and ComEd reported no power shutdowns during the cleanup. Peoples Energy shut down a gas main near the broken water pipe as a precaution, officials said. That part of the gas piping may be replaced.
Several bus lines– the 145, 146, 151, 152, 80 and the rush-hour 135 and 80 Express–will be rerouted west of the Inner Drive until the road is reopened, a CTA official said.
Two of the parked cars that ended up in the sinkhole belonged to Antonio Hernandez and Gustavo Selva. The trunk of Selva’s new Buick LeSabre was pointing skyward and the hood buried into the back of Hernandez’s 2001 Ford Focus.
“I was just coming out to move the car because at 7 a.m. there is no parking,” Selva said. “It could have been worse. I could have gotten a ticket.”
Don Olson, 60, spent the morning sweeping the flooded sidewalk near his townhouse at 3700 N. Lake Shore Drive. He was up at 4 a.m. and said water “was coming in like a river.”
The garage and all 10 basements in his complex were flooded with as much as 2 feet of water, he said.
Property damage claims can be filed with the city, officials said.