PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS — A concrete truck marked with Modern Concrete and Materials fell into a sinkhole that opened beneath it on 5th Street in Port Arthur Monday afternoon, sending the driver to the hospital and drawing police, fire crews, and public works personnel to the scene. A nearby resident said the road had already partially given way the week before.
The collapse happened shortly after noon in the 3200 block of 5th Street. The truck was making a delivery when the pavement gave way beneath it. The driver climbed out of the vehicle but was shaken and visibly ill. “He was upset. He was throwing up,” said Kenneth Rice, who lives nearby at 5th and Dolph and witnessed the collapse. A wrecker was called to remove the truck.
Rice said he heard a loud boom and initially assumed it was the city garbage truck before realizing what had happened. He said the same stretch of road had partially collapsed the previous week but he did not report it to the city because of what he described as years of complaints going unaddressed. “Normally sometimes the city don’t even do nothing, so I didn’t call the city and say nothing about the hole,” Rice said.
His frustration runs deeper than Monday’s collapse. Rice said his property has developed sinkholes multiple times, with cracked walls, doors that no longer close, and a persistent foul smell he attributes to nearby sewer or drainage problems. He said he has contacted the city roughly ten times over the years. “They come out and they do a weak job. That’s all I can tell you,” he said.
Other neighbors told local media the area has been plagued by similar problems for about three years, with portions of yards caving in multiple times and a persistent odor from a nearby drain so bad that residents regularly pour bleach down it trying to reduce the smell.
Most roadway collapses in Southeast Texas are not natural sinkholes but are instead caused by aging underground drainage or sewer systems, leaking water lines, or heavy rainfall eroding soil beneath streets until the pavement above gives way.
Rice said he hopes the very public nature of Monday’s collapse will finally push the city toward a real fix. “I hope they could fix something, do the right thing, fix it the right way,” he said.
Interviews courtesy of local media.
📸 Image(s) used under fair use for news reporting.
