Busy Midtown Atlanta road closed because of underground sinkhole

ATLANTA — An underground hole has forced workers to close all lanes of a busy street in midtown Atlanta for a block.

Utility crews told Channel 2 Action News that a sewer main collapsed last Thursday, causing an underground sinkhole along West Peachtree Street between 3rd and 4th streets.

NewsChopper 2 flew over the scene Monday afternoon and found barricades blocking the road and detouring traffic.

The northbound lanes funnel from three lanes down to one.

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Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach was at the scene around 9:30 a.m. Monday when inspection crews arrived to start pulling manhole covers. The work is affecting some nearby businesses.

Gehlbach talked to workers at the Center for the Visually Impaired, which has many clients who ride MARTA Mobility transit buses and who can no longer be dropped off in front of the building.

“We’re just going to have to make sure that people we know are coming, know to come in a different way, that normally use the front entrance,” said Bill Epperson, director of the VisAbility Hub at the center.

Ashley Robertson, who works at Emory Midtown, told Channel 2's Christian Jennings that traffic to and from work is bad enough without closure.

"We have to go all the way around and go all the way back down just to get on the interstate and I was late this morning coming to work," Robertson said. "(Traffic's) already horrible and it's worse now."

Crews spent the day evaluating the situation and developing a plan for repairs. Crews told Jennings that they will be back working on the problem Tuesday morning.

Cox Media Group