Hamilton sinkhole left unrepaired for years

A man on the south mountain in Hamilton is concerned that a sinkhole on his street has been left open for nearly half a decade and he’s afraid that the city has let the job slip through the bureaucratic cracks.

The hole here Christie Street is a little deceptive. Grass has grown overtop and it’s hard to see. At one time this was 4 feet deep, but Ashok Kumar has filled in this hole on city property, as much as he can. Outside of an orange cone, the city has done nothing else.

Clearing grass away from the sinkhole near his home has become part of the routine for Ashok Kumar: “I was hoping someone would come and repair it, or do something about it, but nobody ever came.”

The hole has been here, on city property, next to a sewer for 5 years. it was originally 4 feet deep, but Kumar filled in as much as he could. He has also contacted the city numerous times. The first response he got was 2 years ago after an email sent directly to Mayor Bratina. A representative from the city came to his door.

Ashok Kumar: “The fellow he looked at that and said ‘oh, this is not my department, I will send the right person’.”

A second person arrived two days later, and said it’s not their department either.

Ashok Kumar: “Third person came — they said not it’s not my area but I will put an orange cone there.”

And that was it. A cone. No fix, no update.

Ashok Kumar: “For the last over 2 years, the cone has been sitting there protecting the sinkhole.”

Last night, he saw our story about a Niagara man who fell into a sinkhole while jogging — a hole which had been there for 2 months. But by mid afternoon that hole was fixed. So Kumar contacted us.

So right now, the hole is about 8 to 10 inches deep which is significant when you consider the amount of overgrowth in the area has made it relatively hidden. So anybody walking or running through could trip and potentially hit this large piece of cement from the sewer grate.

Peter Webb, neighbour: “There’s a lot, a lot of younger kids. We got lots of kids in the neighborhood.”

Neighbour Peter Webb has been aware of the hole and is concerned for kids like his granddaughter: “Because you really can’t see it with all of the tall grass there and they could fall bang their head on the grate or, you know, I couldn’t even imagine what could happen.”

Despite contacting the city at 10:30 this morning, so far there has been no response as to when, they will move the cone, and fix this hole.

The city does know it came to their attention in 2012 but they still don’t know what department is responsible.