East Baltimore still burdened by sinkhole repair on North Avenue
BALTIMORE -- It's been one month since a sinkhole shut down a section of East North Avenue. WJZ has spoken to neighbors who want to know when they can drive down the street again.
"I come through here every day," Antwine Jones said. "It just seems longer. It seems like more than 30 days."
After a month, people still don't know when the stretch of North Avenue between Homewood Avenue and Greenmount Avenue will reopen.
"Everyday I come down Greenmount and I have to come through here, and it's kind of hard to get through here," Jones said. "They've got the road blocked off. It's a big detour coming around the graveyard."
Ernest Harris lives a block away from the sinkhole. Harris says he understands the problem the sinkhole poses and why it takes time to address.
"I drove down there when the hole opened up," he said. "I rode past and I seen that big hole and I'm like: what's going on?"
The hole grew bigger and bigger to the point that three houses had to be torn down. Two of them were vacant houses.
Construction crews have been working to fix the hole ever since it began to consume some of the city's structures.
They say the hole hasn't gotten any bigger and they're making sure the ground is stable before moving forward.
"They got to get the underground right. I do construction. I understand," Harris said. "I do construction every day. So, I definitely understand what they do. So, it's not a problem for me for real."
City officials have asked motorists to continue to take alternate routes until the repair work is complete.
People who live near the sinkhole are hoping the work that is being done to secure the area will prevent any new sinkholes from appearing in the future.
"Sometimes I wonder: is it going to come all the way under the ground all the way up? But there is nothing I can do," Harris said. "The main thing is that they're on top of it. So, there is nothing nobody can do."