That Time A Garbage Truck Got Stuck In A Sinkhole Off South Street

Wanksy would have a field day with this one. While crews were hustling to distribute cardboard trashcans along South Street in anticipation of Saturday's South Street Spring Festival, a waste management truck making its normal rounds on a small discontiguous street off South hit an unexpected snag: a sinkhole, which swallowed a good portion of its back tires before police officers, called to the scene by panicked residents, called for backup.

According to neighbors, residents had been leaving messages for the Streets Department for some time, observing that a small pothole on South Hancock off South seemed to be getting larger and larger over the past few weeks. On Saturday morning at around 10 a.m., the pothole gave way, revealing a leaking water main and a gaping hole underneath the asphalt. After a tow truck showed up, and the garbage truck liberated, the self-dubbed "first response" showed up, piling wooden planks (shown) on top of the gaping hole in the street until crews could come out to fix it.

The Pothole Problem has been a particularly egregious one this year, partially because the winter sucked so goddam hard, but the Streets Department assures us that last year it fixed just as many, if not more potholes than they expect to have to fix this year, and a very visible social media campaign encourages residents to phone in potholes as they see them, for an aimed response time of three business days.

· Much to do about 12,000 potholes [Curbed Philly]