Officials said it was a minor issue that looked much worse.

The Brookhaven Street Department closed the intersection of North Jackson and West Court streets Tuesday when it appeared a sink hole was appearing in the roadway.

“The street department had a concrete drain culvert that goes through there and a sewer line that goes under that,” said Kris Xifos, manager of the water and sewer department for the city. “Both of them kind of separated a little bit and started to wash out.”

The gaping hole that stretched across both lanes of the road looked like it was a much bigger problem than it was, but Xifos said it was not that bad. The large hole was dug to give them room to get in and replace that section of culvert.

“It was actually a minor thing but sometimes when you have to get men and equipment into the hole you have to make it a little bigger than usual,” he said.

The city doesn’t use concrete for culverts any more because it tends to separate and the culverts don’t last long over time.

“These issues we run into are on stuff that has been under ground for several years,” he said.

City workers replaced the concrete culvert with a section made from industrial grade plastic, much like the plastic used in the top of a soda bottle.

Street department workers came in Thursday and filled in the hole and then patched it with asphalt.

“They’ll pack it down good and hard with gravel and crushed concrete and let a couple of days worth of traffic drive over it and help pack it down,” he said. “Then they’ll top it off with gravel then cover it with asphalt. It’s a simple issue that looked big, but it was a simple issue.”