What to Know
- The car was stuck in the hole in the 4300 block of Wisconsin Avenue, Northwest on Friday night.
- The hole was created by a PEPCO crew as part of work to install an underground cable along Western and Wisconsin avenues.
- All of the plates used to cover the underground cable project have been replaced, according to transportation officials.
The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) will be cited after a metal plate covering a hole in the road in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., gave way when a couple’s car stopped on top of it.
The car was stuck in the hole in the 4300 block of Wisconsin Avenue, Northwest on Friday night. The two people inside the car were uninjured and able to climb out of their vehicle.
The hole was created by a PEPCO crew as part of work to install an underground cable along Western and Wisconsin avenues. It is part of the upgrade to the Harrison Substation located in Friendship Heights.
District Department of Transportation and PEPCO inspectors were at the scene to figure out why the plate sank. They are looking at the possibility recent rains caused the sides of the trench to wash away, allowing the plate to fall into the hole.
DDOT’s inspection team has followed up with quality control reviews and will issue a Notice of Violation to PEPCO for failure to meet permit conditions and standard specifications for steel plate maintenance and application.
"I'm not very happy about it. It's my car, so hopefully, it's not, like, a lot of damage, but we'll see," said Brittani Guevara, who was in the passenger seat at the time.
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All of the plates used to cover the underground cable project have been replaced, according to transportation officials.
