Whitefish Bay sinkhole temporary fix; village to fix real problem

WHITEFISH BAY, Wis. - It's been more than two weeks since a sinkhole opened up in a Whitefish Bay park.

It's not what you'd normally see along the walking path at Big Bay Park/Buckley Park, but it's what it will look like for the foreseeable future.

"Everything that you see over here is all temporary," Public Works Director Matt Collins said. "We had to act very quickly."

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More than two weeks ago, a 30-foot sinkhole opened up at Big Bay Park/Buckley Park. The problem is much deeper than that.

"We found out this is due to a storm sewer collapse within this general vicinity," Collins said.

Since then, the village declared an emergency.

The hole has been filled, and construction crews have moved in, putting in more than 500 feet of pipe, connecting to where the collapse happened with the storm water draining into Lake Michigan.

"If we didn’t put that type of emergency measure into place, all of the village’s stormwater within this basin has nowhere to go with that collapsed pipe," Collins said.

The solution is only temporary. Crews still need to get about 70 feet below the ground to fix the real problem.

"It takes specialized equipment," Collins said. "It takes specialized construction firms to do something that far below."

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The village is asking people to stay out of the park as they work on a permanent repair, so it can finally re-open.

"I know there’s a sense of urgency both from a public safety standpoint and just from a park usage," Collins said.

The village will have a meeting on Monday, July 1, to discuss the long-term solutions. They will have a better idea then of just how long the park will stay closed and how much the repairs will cost.