A sinkhole opened beneath a Honda Civic on Scott's Hill Drive in Pikesville this week, and by the time residents woke up the next morning, crews had already patched the road over it. But neighbors say the quick fix hasn't eased their fear that the street could give way again.
The sinkhole, caused by an eight-inch water main break, opened underneath the Honda Civic on Thursday, according to WBAL-TV. Resident Fred Murray told the station he woke up Friday to find the sinkhole repaired and his road patched, but he said it was the third one to open on the street this year. Murray described the road as a wet, ugly quilt of patchwork, and said he lacks confidence in the repair work because crews only patch the surface without addressing the underlying problem.
Murray called the sinkhole that swallowed the Civic the biggest he had ever seen on the block, per the same WBAL-TV report. He and his neighbors say a water leak continues to flow downhill and collect at the site, occasionally bursting up into the right-of-way even after the pavement was patched.
Neighbors Move Their Cars, Fearing the Street Could Give Way
The lingering leak has left Scott's Hill Drive residents unwilling to trust the ground beneath them. Kevin Parada said the block seems very fragile underneath, and that he and others try to stay away from the area because repair crews use heavy equipment there. Some residents are now moving their parked cars off the street entirely, worried the road could collapse again without warning.
The Scott's Hill sinkhole is part of a broader pattern of vehicle-swallowing road collapses that have hit Baltimore County and the city this summer, as detailed by CBS Baltimore. On July 18, a broken 12-inch water main caused a road collapse at North Chester Street and Ashland Avenue in East Baltimore that swallowed a car with a 50-year-old woman inside; she escaped without physical injuries. Earlier, on July 2, a water main break at Kavanagh Road and Inverton Road in Dundalk opened a sinkhole that trapped an SUV, cut off water service to 50 connections, and forced Sandy Plains Elementary School to temporarily close.
A Water Volcano Just Weeks Before the Collapse
Less than two weeks before the Scott's Hill collapse, a 16-inch water main burst at Old Court Road and Three Oaks Road in the nearby Pikesville/Milford Mill area, creating what residents called a water volcano that eroded the ground beneath the intersection and closed it for nearly 24 hours, as Hoodline previously reported. Utility disruptions have plagued the broader Pikesville corridor for months; a 16-inch water main break near Reisterstown Road and Greenspring Valley Road forced traffic detours back in April.
Although Scott's Hill Drive sits in Baltimore County, the regional drinking water distribution network that serves it is owned and operated by the Baltimore Department of Public Works under a shared utility agreement dating back to 1972, according to CBS Baltimore. That network provides water to roughly 1.8 million residents across Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and neighboring jurisdictions, per the Maryland Department of the Environment. Baltimore County government data shows the regional system experiences around 1,000 water main breaks each year, largely blamed on unlined cast-iron pipes installed before 1957 that suffer internal corrosion and soil shifting.
DPW Investigating an Uptick in Breaks Countywide
In late July, Baltimore City DPW's Utility Maintenance Division acknowledged an anomalous uptick in water main breaks across Baltimore County and began investigative surveys into localized system pressure and heavy traffic activity, CBS Baltimore reported. Officials aim to replace or rehabilitate at least 15 miles of aging water mains annually, though they have acknowledged that replacing the region's roughly 4,000 miles of mains remains a multi-decade challenge.
The Baltimore Department of Public Works has advised residents not to assume someone else has already reported a leak or break. Baltimore County residents who spot an active leak or break are urged to call 443-263-2220 or 311, which triggers an inspector dispatch to locate shut-off valves and stop water flow before excavation begins.
