Large sinkhole shuts down road near Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Crews are still trying to make repairs to the pipe that burst Tuesday morning causing a sink hole near Bank of America Stadium.

Crews working on the hole had to shut down South Cedar Street at Morehead Street. Charlotte Water says they’re not even at a point where they can say how long it’s going to take for repairs.

A business owner says he’s heard it will take at least four days.

He says he spotted a problem Monday, and he alerted authorities right away.

Water started gushing out of the storm drain in the parking lot of Mohamed Kambe’s business on Monday.

“After that strong rain we had, stormwater was coming out super strong,” said Kambe.

He called to report the problem.

“City came and said it was taken care of for whatever reason,” said Kambe.

He didn’t think much more about it until Tuesday morning.

He was back at work with crews constructing his sports bar and hookah lounge, Teranga City.

“Ten minutes later, we heard this loud boom, and it’s out there,” said Kambe.

They walked outside and saw that the road had opened up.

A driver ran over and told them the hole cracked open right after he passed by.

“He had just driven past it; it would have been terrible,” said Kambe.

Charlotte Water says they got a call about a leak, and they came out to find a six-inch pipe had burst.

“It was scary because the road has a bunch of cracks, and I was just wondering how far it was gonna get and I looked inside and it was water was just rushing out,” said Kambe.

Crews spent the day preparing to dig out the wet soil, and they’re working with other utilities to come in and mark their lines so that Charlotte Water crews can start to make repairs or replace the pipe.

“It was like a river in there,” said Kambe.

The major impact will be the closure of South Cedar Street near the stadium, meaning people have to navigate around it for Panthers training camp and the Charlotte FC match Wednesday.

“It usually be crowded here, so it’s definitely going to affect that,” said Kambe.

Mohamed is trying to be patient, hoping repairs won’t take too long.

“It’s a big damage, I’ve never seen anything like this on the roads,” said Kambe.

Some businesses say their water was cut off briefly Tuesday, but most, if not all, seem to have it back on now.

Once the pipe is repaired or replaced, crews will add new soil, pack that in the hole, and then Charlotte Department of Transportation will have to repave the road.

This is a Developing Story . Check back for updates

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