Residents in a New Orleans neighborhood are wondering when their street will become totally impassable, or even cave in completely.

They said repairs began weeks ago on a sub-surface leak, but that since then, crews went away and left a huge hole that’s expanging.

You could call it the McKenna Crater.

The hole has consumed an entire lane of McKenna Street just off Nashville Avenue, and residents said it started as what seemed to be such a simple problem.

“I’ve lived here for 19 years, and for just about as long as I can remember, there has been a sinkhole,” Cecile Tebo said.

Added Bennett Cierney, “It was more or less a sinkhole. It went down a couple of inches, maybe six inches or so. It was a hassle to be sure, but it wasn’t anything like it is now.”

So it seemed promising when crews showed up to repair it.

“Oh, we were thrilled, we were thrilled,” Tebo said. “Then they opened this huge gaping hole and we’re like, ‘OK, they’re fixing the water line.’ And then they left.”

Now the hole extends from the sidewalk to the middle of the street and is about 15 feet wide. It also is roughly four feet deep, the bottom covered by muddy rainwater.

The entire area is enclosed by Sewerage and Water Board barrels and caution tape, but the neighbors are getting more and more worried.

“And we have another neighbor that comes and measures this hole daily, and it grows by inches,” Tebo said. “It has become huge, and huge chunks of the street fall into this hole every day.”

“Every once in a while I wake up and there's a few more planks covering the hole, or an extra one of these orange cones telling you not to step in it,” Cierney said. “Can you believe it has been left open like this this long? It's a little bit disheartening."

Tebo said it has been abandoned. She also said she calls daily, letting them know about the problem. Yet, she never gets the same answer twice.

“The last was, ‘Oh, they haven’t finished repairing the pipe, so we have to leave it that way,’ ” Tebo said. “I’m like, ‘Well, nobody’s worked on it for almost three weeks.’ ”

Neighbors see it as an accident waiting to happen.

“Oh, it's incredibly dangerous,” Tebo said. “We have had cars that have almost been hit. I really don't think the street should be used at all."

Eyewitness News has contacted the Sewerage and Water Board, asking them to take care of the situation, to get the repairs completed and the hole filled in as soon as possible to make sure that something unfortunate doesn't happen here

"This is a swimming pool,” Tebo said. “…But somebody is going to roll into it, and I don't want to see that happen."