Traffic was blocked for several hours beginning Wednesday evening at South Main Street near the Hopkinsville Post Office while city and state crews tried to determine the source a cavity in the pavement.
Randy Graham, Christian County Emergency Management director, told Hoptown Chronicle that he was called at 6:25 p.m., shortly after someone noticed a hole in the street. The hole initially was 12 to 18 inches wide, Graham estimated. He said he didn’t believe it was a sinkhole.
After a state highway crew dug off the road surface to check below the pavement, a much larger hole developed — eventually measuring roughly 12 feet wide and 6 to 8 feet deep.
The large gap exposed a water line and a storm drain.
The Hopkinsville Water Environment Authority sent a crew and found a small leak in the water line and worked to repair it.
Graham said the leak was so small that the utility did not have to cut off the water supply in that area.
It was not immediately known what caused the hole in the pavement. In the short term, the biggest inconvenience appeared to be road closures leading into the intersection of South Main and First streets.
“HWEA doesn’t think that was enough of a leak to cause [the hole in the street],” said Graham. “It was not a sizable leak. It was a spray.”
Graham said work would likely continue well after dark. The Hopkinsville Fire Department was bringing portable lights to the scene so crews could continue working into the evening, he said.
As of Thursday morning, the pavement had been patched and the street reopened.
This story was updated to report that the street had reopened.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
