A big sinkhole has opened up in a busy area of Dubuque.

The city says a water main break caused the sinkhole.

It happened on 11th Street between Iowa and Main streets.

The city found out about it early Sunday morning. This massive sink hole is grabbing quite a bit of attention in downtown Dubuque.

A woman driving to work early Sunday morning, called police when she noticed the pavement was starting to give way. Moments later, the road caved it.

"Typically with a water main break, you're going to see the water bubble up the surface,” said Dubuque Water Plant Manager Denise Ihrig.

The city says, in this location, there's a storm sewer very near where the water main broke, causing the sink hole.

The city actually noticed there was some sort of water leak prior to the collapse.

"Our water treatment facility noticed a slight up-tick in the amount of water that we were actually pumping out to the city," said Ihrig.

Across the street, despite the mess, The Salvation Army stilled opened Monday for all activities.

"Our parking lot was a little mixed up but we still had our line dancers this morning. They're really die-hard, they all made it through," said The Salvation Army’s Kris Temperly.

Directors say on a typical day there are dozens of people and hundreds of cars traveling on this street. They say, in this case, timing was everything.

"I could have happened a lot earlier and swallowed up a couple cars. No one was hurt and no one's vehicle in the hole, so that's great," said Temperly.