Sinkhole under Oakwood home forces tenants out; city will step in with fix

A massive sinkhole has formed under a house in the historic Oakwood neighborhood in Raleigh, forcing the tenants to leave.

The owner of the property, Alan Jurkowski, said that the City of Raleigh stepped in to help, but a fix could take up to 18 months.

Around the property on East Lane Street is a fence adorned with signs that say, "Danger - Keep Out" and "No Trespassing."

The sinkhole in the backyard makes the home unlivable, and that cost the tenants their home and Jurkowski a steady source of income.

"We’ve owned this property almost 25 years. It is an important part of our livelihood. It is a duplex which has served good tenants for many years. Now it is uninhabitable," he said.

"The house will have to be removed to access a repair to that pipe in the back. Everything back there is now unstable. And there's no access from the rear or sides of it."

Jurkowski admits that the home sits on unstable soil. "But again, it was built in the 1930s," he said.

When he reached out to the City of Raleigh, the Storm Water Management put his project at the top of their list.

"They have given us a projected timeline of about 18 months to complete this project," he said. "We're number one on their storm water mediation efforts. So we've got their full attention on it."

The city is hoping to find a more permanent solution so that more people can live in and enjoy this historic neighborhood.

"This is basically 120-year-old infrastructure under here, and maybe its time has come," said neighbor Chris Crew.