City officials said it could be next week before street crews are able to begin excavating a section of Pemberton Square Boulevard near the northern entrance to the Vicksburg Mall to determine what is making it sink.

The city’s traffic department April 8 blocked a section of the inside lane of the street from near the entrance to the Vicksburg Post Office south past Vicksburg Family Dental near the mall entrance after city street superintendent Skipper Whittington saw water going into a hole in the street.

“We’re not really sure what’s causing it. We won’t really know until we can get in and remove the pavement,” Whittington said.

A check of the street inside the marked-off area reveals sections where the pavement is uneven and in some spots heavily cracked. The hole where Whittington saw the water going in is partially covered with an orange traffic cone and circled with white paint.

Sewer department superintendent Willie McCroy said officials thought the problem may have been a city storm drain in the area, because the street was dipping in the vicinity of the line, but a check of the line revealed no problems.

Whittington said city officials are having the street evaluated to learn if there are any other utility lines from other services, like AT&T or Entergy running under the street that might be causing the road to dip.

“Once we find that out, we’ll go ahead and remove the surface,” he said. “We’ll probably do that next week, depending on the weather. Until then, we can do our best to make the street as safe as possible for cars to drive on.”