Norfolk, Va. - It's been two weeks since Norfolk city officials shut down a portion of Market Street at St. Paul's Boulevard due to a "sinkhole."
Now the city is calling it a "cave-in," saying nothing is actually sinking in, but that the sediment underneath the asphalt has settled, causing the asphalt to cave.
Regardless, the closure has been causing massive traffic backups for drivers downtown for the past two weeks.
Southbound St. Pauls Blvd. has been reduced to one left turn lane for the I-264 on-ramp and Market Street from MacArthur Mall is also now down to one lane heading towards the ramp.
During peak traffic hours, the southbound traffic can back up to Brambleton and create issues for drivers attempting to get on to I-264.
City officials say that turning lane on St. Paul's was already going to be closed because of traffic signal repairs, so either way there would have been major traffic. But without that information, drivers were under the impression that they were narrowly avoiding a sinkhole that was taking weeks to repair - not to mention, the traffic.
Officials say the traffic problems won't be lasting much longer, however. The cave-in should be repaired next week.
