Workers struck a gas line near the intersection of Big Bend Road and U.S. 301 on Thursday, triggering a gas leak and opening a sinkhole that forced a nearby shopping plaza's Chipotle, Walmart, Chase Bank and Burger King to close their doors. No injuries have been reported.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
said it was assisting Hillsborough County Fire Rescue at the scene after the strike, and urged the public to avoid the area while crews worked.
In a separate incident on June 23, 2022, Tampa Bay 28 reported that a third-party contractor hit a TECO natural gas pipeline late Thursday afternoon. The station reported that the leak came from a major line too large for fire rescue crews to handle on their own, prompting TECO to be called in to make initial repairs. That 2022 leak occurred near I-75 and Big Bend Road.
Only One Customer Affected in 2022 Incident, Per TECO Timeline Reported by Station
In that 2022 incident, the station's report indicates the disruption was limited on the utility side: only one customer was impacted by the outage. TECO was expected to finalize repairs and restore service on Friday, per the same account.
The shopping plaza sits at the signalized, hard-corner intersection of U.S. 301 and Big Bend Road, according to a commercial listing from SRS Real Estate Partners, which places the center at 10393 Big Bend Road in Riverview. The listing says the larger shopping center is anchored by Walmart Neighborhood Market and Sam's Club, describes Chase Bank and Burger King as other retailers, and concerns the Chipotle property.
Construction Already Underway at the Intersection
The line strike happened amid an active road project at the same intersection. FDOT Tampa Bay lists a design-build project replacing the existing asphalt with a concrete surface at the intersection of U.S. 301 and Big Bend Road, with an estimated construction cost of $58.4 million. The project began in August 2025 and was estimated for completion in late 2027.
FDOT's lane-closure schedule listed nighttime closures at Big Bend Road, with westbound work scheduled from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and eastbound work from 10 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Bay News 9 reported separately that drivers could expect continued lane closures on Big Bend Road and U.S. 301 as crews add lanes between U.S. 301 and Simmons Loop to ease congestion, and that nearby businesses had already said the ongoing construction was affecting customers.
Drivers and shoppers in the area are still being told to steer clear while fire rescue crews work at the scene.
