Hole near Erie Canal in Brighton is no sinkhole

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – There is a hole in the bottom of the Erie Canal. The hole is next to the Winton Road Bridge in Brighton. It looks like a drainage hole, as opposed to a sinkhole. But, the water running from the west is pouring right into it.           

One neighbor said this was dug up by a crew last week.

The canal spokesperson tells News10NBC,” This is intentional. There’s a culvert under the canal, and there’s a drain, and we typically have that drain plugged. But, because of a maintenance project at Lock 32 in Pittsford, to keep the pressure off, we pulled that drain plug. That’s intentional. That’s using our infrastructure.”

The drain was built into the canal there, and the plug probably hasn’t been pulled since the late 80s. The Canal spokesperson said they haven’t had to use it. But because they’re doing a winter maintenance project at Lock 32, they pulled the drain plug to keep the level way down this winter.

There’s no sinkhole, no concern to the structure of canal. The water is strategically draining down through that plug or culvert.