What started as a 6-feet wide excavation to install a new sewer line on Orchard Avenue in Bellevue became a major sinkhole encompassing most of the width of the street earlier this week. Pictured above, Bellevue Council public works committee chairman Jim Viscusi and Bellevue DPW’s Tony Fiorenzo survey the damage.

Bellevue public works supervisor Tony Barbarino said that the DPW had already installed sewer lines in two nearby sections of Orchard and was prepared to jump into the next hole when workers returned from lunch to find that one side of the excavation had slid in. Before the day was over, two more slides undermined the entire area and broke a residential water line.

An emergency contractor has been called in to replace the line and rebuild the subsurface of the street, Barbarino said. That work is expected to be completed today, and the contractor should return Monday to replace the manhole pictured above.