Work continues on sinkhole on St. Paul Boulevard

IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. – Drivers in Irondequoit will have to avoid St. Boulevard a little longer.

Crews are still trying to fix part of the road after a sinkhole developed early Wednesday morning. St. Paul Boulevard is closed between Paxton and Wimbledon roads.

Monroe County is excavating the sinkhole trying to find the cause. so far, they’ve found a collapsed storm sewer pipe that might be to blame. the county said that during the storm, the area got an unprecedented amount of rain. The pipes underground aren’t fit to hold that much water, and all of that together caused the sinkhole.

Thursday, Monroe County said workers found a collapsed storm sewer pipe. They are excavating to determine the extent of the collapse and to replace the pipe.

“So when the sinkhole occurred and there was a storm drain failure, it kind of made me question, what is the condition of the storm drains in Irondequoit?” said Nicole Parmiter. She lives near the sinkhole and says she and her neighbors have been experiencing what they think are blocked storm drains in their neighborhood, right down the road from the sinkhole.

“And we’ve done everything that as you’re a homeowner you’re expected to do. We try to keep things elevated, we have a backflow stopper. But when it’s a sudden rain fall, it’s not good enough. The backflow stopper fails,” she said.

She posted in a Facebook group asking her neighbors if their basements flooded after the storm too. She got an overwhelming answer of yes. But this wasn’t the first time their basements flooded.

“Most recently with the storm the other night, I woke up to some water in the basement. More so I see the water coming through cracks, which was a new discovery for me,” Parmiter said.

They feel this excess water could have contributed to the ground opening up, and it could happen in their neighborhood next.

“This neighborhood is older, all these homes are older, so those storm drains have probably been in place for quite some time — and if we didn’t know about that sinkhole or about those storm drain failures, these drains were probably put in at the same time. Are there other points of failure?” Parmiter said.

The county says that depending on how extensive the damage is, the road closure may be extended into this weekend.