Truck gets trapped in Charleroi sinkhole

Repairs on part of Seventh Street are expected to continue for several days.

A tri-axle truck got stuck in a sinkhole Monday afternoon in Charleroi.

The area of Seventh Street and Cherry Alley was blocked off in all directions and the area was closed as the Lutterman Excavating truck, an excavating contractor out of Greensburg, sat in the ground.

According to Borough Manager Joe Manning, they were expecting the truck to help the borough’s redevelopment authority with demolition work at 703 Fallowfield Ave.

“They were supposed to be here this morning, but they got delayed,” Manning said. “So they were bringing their equipment in this afternoon, and when they went to deliver the machine that was going to be used for the demolition of the property, the truck went up Seventh Street and the ground collapsed and the truck was stuck there.”

The borough called Bujanowski Towing Service, based in North Charleroi, to get the truck out of the sinkhole, which was around seven feet deep, Manning said.

Charleroi Fire Chief Bob Whiten said the borough’s public works, the water company and the construction company are involved in getting the road fixed. The water company will backfill the manhole and make repairs to the street.

“We just went down to check hazards and to see if the fuel tank was leaking,” Whiten said.

Manning said there were no injuries, and the street will undergo repairs for the next few days.

He’s not sure what the cause of the sink hole could have been, but there was a layer of blacktop over this already-existing hole.

“Once I got up there and looked at it, there was nothing underneath the street,” Manning said. “Seven feet down, there was nothing there. There was a pillar where the manhole was, and it was still sort of intact holding the manhole. But everything around the manhole was just a complete void.”