Residents of Pleasant Grove are growing tired of persistent sinkholes plaguing their neighborhood.
According to the City of Dallas, the sinkholes afflicting Pleasant Grove are the result of a broken wastewater mainline. One resident of the area told WFAA that the damage is so bad she has been unable to drive down her street in recent days.
“Yesterday it was a swimming pool… Nightmare on Elm Street, something’s down there. Y’all need to get it,” said resident Loal Caldwell, who has lived on Pleasant Grove’s Riverway Drive for around 25 years.
Sinkholes are even resulting in injuries. One of Caldwell’s neighbors, Kiam Johnson, was taken to the hospital after his pickup truck fell into a sinkhole on Monday. Johnson was driving with a trailer in tow when the accident occurred.
Terrance Perkins of the Bruton Terrace Neighborhood Association said the same thing happened to him at his property in March. Perkins told WFAA that old pipes and flooding are the source of the issue. Not only do residents often have to clean up debris themselves, says Perkins, but they even have to manage a failing dam in Lake June, adjacent to their properties.
“The soil shifts… Also the house shifts, and it’s just a mess,” said Perkins, per WFAA.
According to the city, the issue is being addressed as part of a wider project by Dallas Water Utilities. The city says the department plans to replace the wastewater mainline under Riverway Drive and Claudia Lane, stretching from Fairhaven Lane to Lake June Road.
Unfortunately, the fix could still be a long way off.
Dallas Water Utilities is still in the planning stages. Once complete, the city will accept construction bids for the work by the end of the summer. If all goes to plan, a contractor will be awarded the project late this year or early 2026, and construction will kick off next spring or summer.
In the meantime, residents remain stressed about the issue.
“My concern would be that the street continues to collapse and, you know, in other decayed areas that we may not know of,” Perkins said.