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That sinking feeling: Work crews examine a 14-feet-deep sinkhole that opened up in downtown Detroit over the weekend
Traffic has come to a halt in downtown Detroit after a sinkhole opened up in the middle of one of the city's main streets.

The disruption occurred just blocks from the North American International Auto Show and could take days to repair.

The hole originally was about twice as big as a manhole cover but now measures about 14 feet by 10 feet and is on Randolph street at the intersection of Jefferson, next to the Coleman A. Young municipal building and the Millender Center, WWJ-AM reports.


The exact cause of the sinkhole is unknown

'Well, unfortunately we are a pretty old city, we have older substructures underneath the roadways, and so at the moment we are not sure,' MDOT spokeswoman Diane Cross told WWJ.

'Age is always a factor - that's going to be the kind of thing that's going to have to be determined as well.

The opening of the street revealed old brick work under the surface. The site would have been a settled part of Detroit going back almost to the city's founding in 1701.

Sinkholes are depressions in the ground and occur when the surface level collapses exposing the gap below.

They can occur naturally through erosion when water seeps through the gaps and eats away at the rock below the surface. In urban areas sinkholes can be caused when water mains or sewer pipes crack.