
An eight-foot-deep sinkhole — originally 15 to 20 feet wide — more than doubled in size since it first opened around 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 6, closing traffic in two lanes on Campus Point Drive near Campus Point Court until further notice. A broken storm water pipe ruptured beneath the street, eroding the soil and causing the road to collapse, said San Diego Storm Water Department spokesman Bill Harris. No one was injured, however traffic was diverted around the giant chasm through a private parking lot, and the water main line serving 30 nearby businesses was shut off following the incident. “We have since televised the line, and it looks like it spans well across the road,” Harris said, estimating the potential break to be some 300 plus feet. “It’s pretty extensive.” Harris said the pipe was fragile already, and the rain on Oct. 5 might have been the last straw for the decaying pipe, which was installed in 1979. “This type of corrugated pipe was banned in 1992,” he said. “We’d known that this site was a potential problem, but by no means did we know it would fail so drastically.” Sewer and water pipes have temporarily been installed above ground, and construction on the pipe and road began over the weekend. Harris said the feeble old pipe will be replaced with “something much more durable.” There is currently no estimate of when the road is expected to reopen, however Harris assured the first priority is to restore traffic flow to the area.








