Water from the broken pipe carved a hole eight feet deep in the Country Club Drive/Ramsey Street area near Lake Crest Drive.
Work crews say just after noon Friday the sink hole opened up as millions of gallons of water spewed from a ruptured main. Crews don't know what caused the 15-inch water main to burst.
After the line was shut off, huge pumps started draining the sinkhole so crews could get to the break.
It took crews just a few minutes to lower a new section of pipe into place, but they spent eight hours pumping and digging the broken pipe out.
A Fayetteville Public Works Commission spokesperson said water had been restored to homes and businesses in the area and repair crews would work all night to repair the damage.
"This was a pretty big break we spilled over 2 million gallons of water and that's pretty big," said Carolyn Justice Hinton with PWC. "We got about an 18 foot section of pipe thats got to be replaced."
They hope to repave the road Saturday.
A PWC spokesperson says it is a major repair project - workers and machines are blocking off five lanes of the bypass causing motorists to take alternate routes.
PWC says thousands of customers in the north eastern part of Fayetteville were affected.
Customers may see some temporary water discoloration, so they are advised to flush their pipes by running the water for a few minutes.
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