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A sinkhole has opened up on a street in one of Auckland’s oldest suburbs, with a protective cordon now in place to prevent traffic from driving near the crumbling road.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand staff are on the corner of Dunedin and New Streets in St Marys Bay to keep people safe and away from a sinkhole that opened up at lunchtime.
A firefighter told the Herald the council was responsible for fixing it, but Fire and Emergency were on the scene to put down cones and keep people away.
A sinkhole has a brick-lined crater that is around 2sq m beneath the ruptured surface of the St Marys Bay street. Photo / Michael Craig
The firefighter said it would be easy for a motorist or cyclist to hit the sinkhole if they had not put cones around the hole.
Auckland Council said its healthy waters team has contractors on the way to determine the cause of the hole and Auckland Transport has made the site safe by placing a plate over the hole.
“Healthy waters will be determining the best course of action for repair. An engineer will also inspect the site before remedial action is taken,” a spokesperson said.
While the cause of the sinkhole was unclear, large hollows elsewhere in the city in the past two years have been blamed on deteriorating pipes and high rainfall.
In September 2023, a 13m-deep hole on St Georges Bay Rd in Parnell opened to a 2.1m-wide collapsed brick pipe that served Central Auckland and West Auckland.
Watercare released findings of a report six months later with the council organisation apologising profusely and promising to work on rebuilding its sewer network.
The report said the condition of the pipe, weakened concrete blocks at the sinkhole’s location, excavation for a power cable nearby and corrosion and erosion led to the chasm opening up.
Another sinkhole on College Hill appeared months earlier in July 2023 when a stormwater pipe cracked and led groundwater to seep in during heavy rain events.
Fire and Emergency are on the corner of Dunedin and New Sts in St Marys Bay to keep people safe and away from a sinkhole that opened up at lunchtime. Photo / Michael Craig
Earlier still, another sinkhole occurred on the same pipe a bit further down College Hill near the corner of Victoria Park during the January 27, 2023 floods. This sinkhole, on a busy intersection, was quickly filled in.
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