TAMPA, Fla. — A downtown Tampa intersection will be closed for the next two weeks so crews can investigate and perform emergency road work on repairs to a cave-in.
The intersection of westbound West Brorein at South Parker Street located just west of the Hillsborough River will be closed starting at 9 a.m. and will remain closed for at least the next two weeks.
A detour has been set up to route drivers from Brorein to south on Bayshore Boulevard, west on W. Verne Street and north on S. Plant Avenue. Message boards will be installed on Ashley Drive and Brorein Street to encourage drivers to find and use alternate routes.
You can find all Tampa road closures here.
Eric Weiss, the director of the City of Tampa's Wastewater Department, said the city's preliminary investigation shows a 60-inch wastewater mainline pipe, located 20 feet underground, may have corroded. The settling of the soil around the corrosion likely caused the cave-in.
City leaders say many of the water and wastewater pipes in Tampa are between 70 and 100 years old. Because of this, the city is executing a $2.9 billion funding plan called PIPES. The plan will be a large-scale sewer and water infrastructure overhaul and improvements.
Those improvements will hopefully prevent situations like this cave-in from happening in the future.
