Georgetown Mayor Jack Scoville says the crater that formed Tuesday night at the intersection of Highmarket and Fraser Streets is not a new sinkhole.

It is “actually a cave-in on an abandoned stormdrain line,” Scoville said this afternoon.

“The recently abandoned stormdrain line actually had a small hole in the side of it that allowed the sublayer of the highway and about a 2 feet diameter section of asphalt to cave into the stormdrain.  The contractor working for SCDOT has backfilled the hole with flowable fill and the problem has been corrected.  A steel plate will remain over the hole until the cement in the flowable fill has cured for traffic,” he said.

The area — under a traffic light — was noticed by some Tuesday night but attended to by the city Wednesday morning It is in the same area of the city where several sinkholes formed last year.

Several SCDOT workers were on the scene Wednesday afternoon beginning the repairs.

According to Georgetown resident Lee Padgett, another small sinkhole formed in the 600 block of Duke Street last week. It has been repaired by the city.

Read more in Friday’s Georgetown Times.