The sinkhole in the East Hills Business Park has grown to about 5 feet wide. A broken water line is blamed for the cave-in. The hole should be repaired by the end of the week.

A sinkhole that appeared late last week in the East Hills Business Park was caused by a water line break, city officials said.

The gaping hole, about 5 feet wide, between the 3700 and 3800 blocks of Greenway Circle, will be repaired this week.

Jeanette Klamm, utilities programs manager for the city of Lawrence, said the utilities department is expecting to repair the water line and fill the hole with soil this evening.

Bill Nye, asphalt supervisor for the city’s street maintenance department, said he expected the work to be finished by Friday.

“All we’re going to end up doing is patching back the top with asphalt,” he said. Nye said his department could not move forward until the water line was fixed, but laying asphalt would take only a few hours.

The business park is east of Lawrence on Kansas Highway 10.

Two years ago, sewer lines collapsed on Tennessee and Kentucky streets, creating holes in the roads that delayed traffic.

Nye said a massive sinkhole that developed in North Lawrence during the flooding of 1993 was the most significant in recent history.