A huge hole opened in the street alongside the Hope Town Square last week and is leaving an even bigger hole in the town’s finances.

Hope Utilities Manager David Clouse said that a passerby first noticed the hole in the parking space pavement when it was about two and a half feet across. Underneath the crumbling layer of asphalt, the hole was actually about 13 feet wide and four feet deep, left when an underground storm water tunnel collapsed.

Clouse estimated that the tunnel, made of hand-laid limestone, was originally built in the 1920s or ’30s and was never meant to carry the weight of modern vehicles, instead being designed for Model Ts and horse drawn buggies.

Although his crews have reconstructed the limestone tunnel and filled in the hole, the problem runs deeper. Engineering estimates are that it will cost more than $608,000 to replace the entire aging tunnel that runs several blocks to the east from State Road 9. Clouse said that the work would require replacing the line all the way to Walnut Street.

Clouse said a similar hole opened up about six years ago.

The town is planning to seek a state grant this fall to replace the storm sewer, putting off other projects that town leaders were considering around the Town Square. The town share of the matching grant would be about $60,000 according to initial estimates.

Town officials say that they are hoping to be able to complete the storm sewer work, then pave the entire Town Square so as not to need to tear up new pavement to do the work.