A sinkhole appeared Tuesday evening along the California Street cable car tracks, near the intersection of Montgomery Street, but the situation appears resolved as of Wednesday morning.
With heavy rain, sometimes we have sinkholes, and a modest-sized one appeared Tuesday — actually two adjacent sinkholes appeared — along the cable car tracks at California and Montgomery streets around 7 p.m.
The sinkhole situation led to the suspension of California Street cable car service on Tuesday night, but the SFMTA said service was restored as of Wednesday morning.
Authorities said that a pipe beneath the area where the sinkholes appeared had been isolated and shut down, but the exact cause remains unclear. Crews worked to fill the holes, and apparently things have stabilized?
DPW has isolated the pipe and shut it down.
— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) January 17, 2024
Repairs underway shortly. pic.twitter.com/0lu5k8FyST
The initial sinkhole was estimated to be about four feet by four feet, and three feet deep, as KTVU reported.
A Department of Public Works crew arrived to address the underlying pipe problem, and according to KTVU it had been "gushing" water into the sinkhole before being shut off — suggesting this incident was not rain-related.
A motorcyclist was among the first to find the sinkhole, hitting it and crashing around 6:57 p.m. Tuesday.
Per KTVU, the motorcyclist, Arwi Odense, was briefly hospitalized but later returned to the scene with his wife to retrieve his motorcycle.
"You couldn't tell if there was anything there at all," Odense tells KTVU. "It felt as if somebody had like kicked my feet underneath me. Before I knew it, I was on the ground."
Below, some cool video of a cable car slowly making its way past the sinkhole, amid steam rising from the street.
@SFMTA_Muni carefully moves a cable car near a sinkhole last night on the California St line. pic.twitter.com/HCcq3iue19
— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) January 17, 2024