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Giant Sinkhole Closes Down Intersection at Tulip and Huntingdon


“What’s the situation?” shouted one Philadelphia Water Department employee into a radio communicator as he stared into the massive hole in the Earth that lay before him. “Well, half the of the street’s gone, that’s the situation!”

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And he wasn’t kidding. Officials say a 12-inch water main break was the cause of the sinkhole at the corner of Tulip and Huntingdon streets around 3PM on Monday, August 24. It was quite the situation indeed.

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As of the morning of Tuesday, August 25 the intersection remains closed as crews worked to repair the street.

“What we’re going to do is cap this 12-inch main,” a PWD worker told The Spirit. “Sewer maintenance has to get in here and the rest of the utility companies have to come in. The sewer is down so they are going to have to dig all this out and repair the sewer.”

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The 2300 block of Huntington has running water after services were interrupted for about an hour yesterday.

William Huffnagle, a resident of Tulip Street near Huntingdon, described the event to The Spirit.

“It was around quarter till three yesterday afternoon. The water was coming up out of the street and gushing up by the curb. Another guys was standing by the hole with a cell phone. He called 911 and they sent the Fire Department. Then the Water Department came and looked into the hole.”

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Huffnagle says this isn’t the biggest sinkhole he’s seen in the neighborhood, recalling one on Tulip and Letterly streets years ago. Fishtown resident Paul Morowski keeps records of sinkholes in the Fishtown area and we’ve put those locations into a map. As you can see, sinkholes aren’t uncommon around here.

Good news is no people, cars, or pizzas from Franco’s appeared to be injured or damaged because of the sinkhole.

Sinkholes

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