Water main break creates sinkhole at Campus Elementary

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — District officials are asking neighbors to avoid the playground at Grand Rapids’ Campus Elementary School after a water main break created a sinkhole Saturday.

The school is located at the intersection of Benjamin Avenue SE and Thomas Street SE, adjacent to Grand Rapids Public Schools’ Franklin Campus.

Teams were on scene Saturday afternoon. The district’s chief of staff and executive director of public safety and school security, Larry Johnson, said they were working to pinpoint the location of the break and develop a plan to fix it.

“In the meantime, we want to just shore up the playground and make sure that we can keep kids off of it,” he told News 8.

Johnson asked residents to keep away from the site, which had caution tape surrounding the perimeter.

“We would really stress that they not allow their kids to come here,” he said. “This is a pretty deep sinkhole, and it’s very unsafe.”

However, he said, district officials don’t expect to close school because of the sinkhole.

“We absolutely believe we will be in school on Monday,” Johnson said. “This did not impact the building to a point where we think we have to close.”

He didn’t have an estimate of when the sinkhole would be fixed.

“It’s a work in progress,” Johnson said. “…Hopefully, we can get this done within the next 24 hours.”

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