'Two hours later the hole thing had gone': Stormwater pipe in need of repair led to College Hill sink hole

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The sink hole at 3pm on Monday compared to just after 12pm Tuesday.
Photo: RNZ / Delphine Herbert

Cafe owners near a sinkhole that has opened up on College Hill in central Auckland say business has been disrupted as the council expects it will take four months to fix.

It began to concave on Monday, and is about two-and-a-half metres long. Kauri Creek cafe owner Andy Smith said it got bigger relatively quickly.

”Amazingly, I was here yesterday (Monday) and I was walking by… I noticed that all the tarmac had sunken in, and I thought that was strange, and then half-an-hour later when I was walking back, a big chunk of it had fallen away .Two hours later, the whole thing had gone.”

There had been fewer customers in the cafe on Tuesday as a result of the road being blocked off, he said.

Photo: RNZ / Delphine Herbert

Cafe 28 had also been impacted. Owner Himanshu said the loss had been significant

”I haven’t seen any customers [because] I am totally lost, 80 percent loss of the business.”

He says as well as foot traffic, food deliveries have been cancelled.

”It’s very hard. All of the deliveries come, but they’ve cancelled all the deliveries – just because of that, nobody is coming here to pick up the deliveries.”

Cafe 28 staff member Gaurav Juneja was worried about the possibility of the sinkhole getting worse.

”These kinds of things happen so it’s not that big of a deal, unless they completely shut off College Hill Road and everyone driving around the area, so there wouldn’t be much traffic in the cafe. That is something I am worried about.”

Both cafe owners said they had not been notified by the council on what the next steps are or how long the road will be closed for.

Resident Heather was shocked when she saw the news.

”I just work up the road and we cross over here everyday, so seeing it on the news last night I was like, can I get to work? I don’t know.”

Four-month repair

In a statement, Auckland Council said teams have been on site and identified a stormwater pipe due for renewal this August had developed further damage.

Healthy Waters head of operations Andrew Skelton told Checkpoint it was expected to take four months to replace the sewerage pipe and fix the College Hill sinkhole.

It had caused the soil and road above it to subside.

”Temporary work is underway to secure the damage and protect the road, and this is due to be completed by the end of the week,” he said.

“As Healthy Waters already had plans and a design in place to complete this pipe renewal, this work will begin immediately following the temporary fix to the pipe and road.”

Eastbound lanes towards the CBD were closed while works were underway, while one lane was open westbound towards Ponsonby.

A diversion had also been installed for access to Gudgeon Street and a detour was running through England, Ireland and Scotland streets.

Auckland Council recommended motorists use Franklin Road to avoid delays on College Hill.