Sinkhole Closes Warren Street

By Nick Pinto
POSTED OCTOBER 17

Motorists traveling east on Warren Street found their passage blocked at Church Street Oct. 17, after a section of the street collapsed in on itself.

About 15 feet of asphalt crumpled into a hole that appeared beneath the street. Inspectors from Con Edison, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Public Works responded to the scene, and police taped off the area and closed the block of Warren Street between Church and Broadway.

Diego de Jesus, an inspector for the Department of Transportation on the scene , said the collapse was caused after a broken water main washed out the earth underneath the street.

Joe Petta, a Con Edison spokesman, said a utility crew was on the block simply to confirm that no damage had been done to any gas mains or steam lines.

“We have considerable infrastructure under the streets of Lower Manhattan,” Petta said. “Fortunately in this case it doesn’t appear that anything was damaged.”

Mercedes Padilla, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, said that a 12-inch water main on the block ruptured on Oct. 15, but that the main had been repaired by the next morning.

Steve Wiederlight, an owner of the Fountain Pen Hospital, at 10 Warren Street, said his store’s basement had been flooded when the main initially broke.

“We didn’t lose any merchandise from the flooding, but now today we have the street caving in, and they’ve closed off the block,” he said. “It certainly doesn’t help business.”

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