This sinkhole in Philadelphia's Manayunk neighborhood is frustrating residents: "It's a ticking time bomb"

Kevin Loughlin opened his door to a collapsed mess. The sidewalk, curb and parts of the street in Philadelphia's Manayunk neighborhood have collapsed. Neighbors are frustrated about the sinkhole.

"I heard don't fight the city, or you will lose," Eleanor Patafio said.

The situation on Conarroe Street in Manayunk didn't happen overnight. As neighbors explain, a water main break in December of 2024 was the start of trouble.

"We thought everything was fixed, and then January came and noticed everything collapsed," Loughlin said.

Loughlin said the problem seems to be spreading. Patafio lives next door to the Loughlins. She said she recently got word that her sewer line broke.

The cost to repair it?

"$12,000," she said. "I'm a senior citizen. I get one check a month. That's it."

Loughlin said he filled out a handful of 311 reports. He said the Water and Streets departments have responded, but there's been little action to fix the gaping problem.

"And then they went ahead and closed the (311) ticket for whatever reason, and you have to keep creating them," Loughlin said.  "At some point they start blaming my neighbor's sewer line for the issue."

Loughlin recently posted about it on Facebook and reached out to CBS News Philadelphia. By the way, his water, sewer and gas are all still connected — but he is concerned.

"Thankfully none of that has been affected yet," Loughlin said.

But the sinkhole continues to drop.

"Yeah, so it's a ticking time bomb," Loughlin added. 

A spokeswoman from the Philadelphia Water Department said that a camera inspection found a customer's broken sanitary sewer pipe on the block is washing soil and debris from under the street and sidewalk and into the sewer that serves homes on 100 block of Conarroe Street.

The PWD said crews will work with the customer to make repairs to their sanitary sewer lateral, and then the city will make repairs to Conarroe Street.