It happened again.
The city of Omaha awoke to another sinkhole Sunday morning after a portion of sidewalk in the popular Blackstone District collapsed, exposing a basement. A stretch of Farnam Street between 38th Street and 38th Avenue remained closed Monday as crews assessed the scene.
While the city hasn’t yet determined the cause of the collapse, the hole is on Omaha’s future streetcar route, which has been under heavy construction for months.
Two neighboring properties, a bar and an apartment building, were briefly evacuated out of an abundance of caution Sunday morning. After review by a structural engineer and a city inspector, the Omaha Fire Department allowed residents of The Colonial at 3804 Farnam St. to return and Cunningham’s Pub & Grill at 3814 Farnam to reopen, according to a press release from the mayor’s office.
The building most impacted by the sinkhole appears to be vacant. A “for sale” sign in the window lists a number for commercial real estate group, The Lerner Company. Reached by phone Monday, a representative of the company said they no longer have a contact for the building’s owner, and the building may no longer be listed for sale.
The city first learned of the cave-in when a call came into the street maintenance line after 8 a.m. Sunday. City Public Works staff arrived, and the Omaha Fire Department secured the scene after 10 a.m. On hand were Metropolitan Utilities District (MUD), Omaha Public Power District and representatives from the city’s streetcar contractors.
This collapse ate a sidewalk. The city’s last sinkhole in February ate two cars. That incident occurred at a busy intersection near 67th and Pacific streets. A pickup truck and an SUV were waiting at a stoplight when the road underneath the vehicles swallowed them both into a sinkhole. Bystanders rushed to the hole to pull the drivers out, and no one was seriously injured.
MUD and the City of Omaha were at odds over the cause of that sinkhole. MUD claimed the collapse was from the city’s deteriorated storm sewer; the city disputed that claim, pointing instead to a potential water main break.
Whether the utility district and the city will agree on the cause of this latest sinkhole remains to be seen. Messages to MUD and Omaha’s City Engineer weren’t returned Monday morning.
In a press release shared Sunday, the mayor’s office said more information will be made public as it becomes available.