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A Waste Management truck got stuck in a sinkhole Monday afternoon in West Seattle’s Westwood neighborhood.
It happened around 2:00 p.m. at the intersection of Southwest Kenyon Street and 24th Avenue Southwest.
Neighbors stunned to see a large recycling truck swallowed by a residential roadway.
“I didn’t realize what exactly happened until we got close up here,” said Gina Chavez.
“It’s kind of crazy, yeah there’s a front end of a recycling truck in the street,” said Beth Cook.
Officials said the truck got lodged in a 10-foot hole gushing with water. Crews with Seattle Public Utilities worked seven and half hours, trying to determine what happened.
“I think at this point it’s just the amount of rain we’ve had,” said Seattle Public Utilities Crew Chief Marlene Allen. “It could possibly be a main break – just the pressure of it from the water coming through – we don’t know if there was a blockage or not at this point.”
Crews worked for hours to run a camera through the storm drain – but there was too much debris inside to determine a cause for the sinkhole.
“Typically our pipes are able to handle it – we’ve had a lot of rain in a short period of time,” said Allen.
The recycling truck was towed away Monday evening and the area where the concrete road gave way has been secured for drivers safety.
Crews will be back early Tuesday morning to make to begin the final fix.
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