Growing sinkhole consuming South Philly street; neighbors frustrated with city inaction

SOUTH PHILADELPHIA - There is frustration in a South Philadelphia neighborhood where residents say their street is caving in from a sinkhole. Neighbors say the hole is growing and they want to know when it will be fixed.

"It’s grown, so, literally, the entire street is now a giant sinkhole. And it’s spreading," resident Melissa Soysal said.

Pierce Street residents want to give the city a piece of their mind.

"So you’d like to have your street back," asked FOX 29’s Steve Keeley.

"Oh yes," was the reply. "And, it’s scary, cause people do come up and go on this pavement." Resident Theresa Banning stated.

85-year-old Banning has been watching what was a little hole she covered with her brown trash can three months ago, grow and grow until the street caved in in front of her South Philly rowhouse and right where her reserved, disabled parking space is supposed to be, but has sunken down several feet.

"You’ve been going without your reserved parking spot for three months?" Keeley asked.

"It’s a while," Banning replied. "I’ve been parking down the corner. I carry a suitcase with stuff up."

"So, you have to carry your groceries for a whole block?" Keeley pressed.

"I put it into a wheel cart and bring it up," Banning said.

Residents meet their delivery folks at the other end of the block and city trash trucks drive up onto the sidewalk to get around the hole on trash days.

Resident Melissa Soysal described the situation this way, "It’s gotten to the point where everyday, it grows and grows and grows. It’s at the point now where folks can’t access their parking spots. You can’t drive down the street. It’s impossible to bike around here. It’s quite unsafe."

Keeley asked, "What do you think when you see the city garbage trucks going on your sidewalk to go around this and maybe sink the street further?"

I mean, it’s pretty upsetting for the trash truck folks that they have to drive on the sidewalk and try to navigate this giant hole but also upsetting for the sidewalk probably getting destroyed. You know, folks need it to walk, put their strollers on there and also, yeah, the possibility of the hole getting bigger from it is quite scary," Soysal answered.

Homeowners tell FOX 29 they contacted their councilmember’s office, the city’s 311 call center and the water department hoping something is done before something worse happens.

Soysal said, "To no avail, though, nothing’s quite happening yet. My neighbors and I talk everyday. Hopefully, nobody’s house is gonna fall in. No one’s car. Nobody walking by."

Keeley asked, "What’s it gonna take for the city to get out here and fix this? A couple of houses cave in?"
"It honestly seems like it," Soysal replied. "It seems like they’re waiting for either somebody to get injured or something horrible to happen."