A sinkhole is never a convenient thing, especially in the middle of the often-busy West Seventh Street in St. Paul.  

“One of my bartenders, they’re great, sent me a picture that was posted on Facebook,” says Kathy Gosinger, general manager of Tom Reid’s Hockey City Pub.

“I would go around,” adds Shell Campbell. “I would take the back way to get to I-94. Go through where we have the hospitals and all that.”
  
This hole-in-the-road drama began around 7 p.m. Thursday, when a public works employee, driving by, spotted the collapsed pavement, which turned out to be an over 35-foot-deep void.

“We know that something began to erode the soft St. Peter sandstone that’s below us,” explains St. Paul Public Works Director Sean Kershaw.

The suspicion is that water underground may have dissolved the sandstone sandwiched between the pavement and a six-foot sanitary sewer more than 30 feet down.

The debris cleanup and the rebuild are expected to take months.

“It takes two months because we really have to be careful,” Kershaw says. “We have to go down about 30 feet to where the tunnel is, we’ve got to pull out the debris. It’s sitting right next to a 20-inch water line, so we want to make sure that’s not impacted.”

He notes work crews will also have to rebuild the sanitary sewer tunnel and the shaft all the way up to the street.  

On Friday, to ease congestion, the city opened one lane in each direction between Grand Avenue and Kellogg Boulevard.  

Businesses are bracing for a busy traffic day Sunday, with the Minnesota Frost playoff game at 5 p.m., and Mother’s Day dinners at nearby bars and restaurants..

“It’s going to be very busy, and it will impact a little bit because this is such a busy street,” Gosinger says.  

Parking is limited on side streets, but there are other options, including parking lots behind or near some establishments and nearby parking ramps.   

“Thankfully, we do have lanes going down, our parking lot is just down the street,” Gosinger explains.
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The hole is now covered by metal plates.

Kershaw says there are detours set up to allow drivers access to parking ramps or other spaces.

Repair work at the sinkhole site is to begin at 7 a.m. Monday. Campbell notes she’s already planning a workaround strategy for Sunday and beyond.

“I would bypass this because, for one thing, you have… stuff going on and that’s crazy all the time anyway, or whatever else is going on,” she says.