Charles Nailen/The Hoya Bank Street is shut down Wednesday night after a 30 foot segment of the roadway collapsed into the adjacent construction site.

Georgetown’s Bank Street was indefinitely closed after about 30 feet of the street sank into the adjoining construction site at approximately 7 p.m. Thursday evening. Emergency crews worked through the night to prevent further growth of the sinkhole and ensure the safety of those in the area.

The accident scene, located perpendicular to both Prospect and M Street, next to Kinkos, drew several curious passersby. District fire and police officials, however, kept the groups of individuals moving.

The street sank into the edge of a construction pit approximately one block in length and intended to eventually be a shopping center and underground parking garage. The mishap also destroyed a chain-link fence and retaining wall running along one side of the construction site. Traffic remained marred into Thursday as crews attempted to pack the hole with dirt.

“It could be like dominoes, a landslide growing farther and farther outward. We’re trying to analyze all the stress points and brace them,” said Alan Etter, spokesman for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, said in a arch 27 Washington Post article.

The sink directly affected several Georgetown students, as all Bank Street residents were quickly evacuated. Some nearby residents were also asked to cease use of water and gas utilities, emergency officials said in the article.

Kelly Falls (COL ’03) returned home Thursday night to be greeted by emergency crews evacuating her building. Although she was eventually allowed a few minutes to retrieve her belongings, Falls and the rest of the residents in her apartment building are indefinitely being put up at the Holiday Inn Hotel.

” [The construction company] is also renting cars for people who have cars in the parking garage under my apartment,” she said. “They said the cars will be stuck down there for at least four weeks until they can rebuild the road to be wide enough.”

While residents of Falls’ apartment were told they may be able to move back as early as this weekend, workers are trying to assure the foundation is completely stable. The crew began drilling holes Thursday into the non-collapsed sections of the street to test ground stability.

Other Georgetown students were informed of the sinkhole situation through the use of the newly instituted Roam Secure Alert System, which quickly disseminates information about emergency circumstances through various modes of communications. Messages were sent out late last night describing the incident and explaining alternate traffic routes, as M Street was closed down to the Key Bridge.

The Washington Post reported that officials are speculating the sinkhole may have been caused by a major water leak found by the site. It is not clear, however, whether a broken water pipe or the street collapse came first.

This topographical issue comes on the heels of yet another manhole explosion last month, marking a pattern of weak road structural subsets in the Georgetown area. Last night, businesses on M Street from Wisconsin Avenue down to 34th Street NW were forced to once again temporarily turn off power and water.