Part of Hollywood Boulevard Damaged by Sinkhole to Reopen

A three-block stretch of Hollywood Boulevard was expected to reopen early today to one lane of traffic in each direction, about two weeks after a giant sinkhole tore apart the famed thoroughfare above the city’s multibillion-dollar subway project.

But it will be at least two months before the street is fully open between Vermont Avenue and Edgemont Street, as subway workers clear debris out of one of a pair of tunnels under the roadway, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Andrea Greene said the agency wants to complete work on the tunnel before fully reopening the street, including correcting a six- to eight-inch misalignment in an 80-foot section of the south tunnel.

“We want to fix the tunnel first,” she said. “We don’t want to have to inconvenience people a second time,” she said.

The street was closed June 22 after a broken water main opened up a 70-by-70-foot sinkhole. The street was partly reopened several days later, but shut down again after cracks were discovered in the north tunnel.

The street was to reopen at 7 a.m. today. A 10,000-pound weight limit will be in effect on traffic moving through the area.