UPDATE: As of Thursday morning, Monroe County officials said that St. Paul Boulevard remains closed between Paxton Rd. and Wimbledon Rd.
They said that crews worked overnight on the sinkhole repair and discovered a collapsed storm sewer pipe. They will continue excavating to determine the length of the collapse and begin to replace the pipe.
St. Paul Blvd. is expected to remain closed from Paxton Road to Wimbledon Road at least into Friday. And officials say that depending on the extent of the collapsed pipe that needs to be replaced, the closure may extend into this weekend.
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A sinkhole swallowed up a car on St. Paul Blvd. in Irondequoit early Wednesday morning.
It happened after a night of heavy rain, although crews are still working to determine just what caused the pavement to give way.
Two people were in the car, and one of them, the male passenger, was taken to the hospital. His condition is not known yet, but Anthony DeSalvo, who lives near the intersection of St. Paul and Covington Rd., not far from where the incident happened, said he was able to talk to the man before the ambulance took him to the hospital.
It happened just after 5:00 a.m. DeSalvo said he heard a crash and at first thought it was an accident, so we went out to check, and saw the sinkhole, and said that, “All I saw was a lady's head poking out of the ground, it took a little bit for my brain to come to comprehend or process what was going on. And as I got closer, I saw her her car in her passenger in the sinkhole.”
DeSalvo said initially he could not get the woman out of the car and sinkhole by himself, and he was concerned another vehicle would run into it and perhaps end up on top of the submerged car, so he stayed on the street to warn other cars away.
A few minutes later, DeSalvo said his neighbor joined him and they were able to get the woman out, but could not get her passenger out of the car.
“A few minutes later, the fire (dept.), the police, and the first responders showed up with a ladder and were able to get him out and get him on a gurney on his way to the hospital,” said DeSalvo.
The car was tipped on its side in the sinkhole but eventually crews were able to remove it. DeSalvo estimated the sinkhole was at least 10 feet deep.
DeSalvo said the whole experience was surreal. “The adrenaline flow is definitely still there but I was just glad that I was at the right place at the right time to kind of do my good turn."
The National Weather Service estimated that overnight, 2 to 3 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Monroe County.
A section of St. Paul Blvd., between Paxton and Wimbledon Roads was closed to traffic on Wednesday while crews work on repairs.
Tom Polech is Monroe County’s Deputy Director of Transportation. He said the heavy rains early Wednesday morning were likely a factor, and he also noted that sinkholes are pretty rare in this region.
“They happen, but they’re not common by any means," noted Polech. "So it could have been a connection between two pipes that failed or could have been something over time that gradually was starting to fail. So that’s kind of what we’re trying to assess right now.”
Polech said they are in the process of filling in the hole with compacted stone, and although police have said drivers on that section of road should be prepared for the detour to last a few days, he is hoping they can get the road reopened on Thursday.
