ASHEVILLE —The sinkhole that made international headlines after it opened suddenly in a Merrimon Avenue parking lot is no more.

The pit, which city officials estimate was 36 feet across on June 27, was filled in on June 30. According to the realtor representing the property, the sinkhole swallowed 200 tons of road bond — the weight of about 66 bull African elephants.

This is by no means the "final fix," Mike Anderson of Advantage Civil Engineering told the Citizen Times on July 1 while onsite at 1010 Merrimon Avenue. The road bond is a temporary measure intended to prevent the hole from expanding, Anderson said.

It also stops the hole from gobbling up looky-loos who stray too close to the edge.

The engineering team hired by the property owners is still working to finalize designs for the repair, Anderson said, and the process of ordering materials and the labor itself will likely take several weeks.

Anderson implored members of the public to steer clear of the 1010 Merrimon Avenue parking lot altogether, as the stability of the ground is not known. Many Asheville residents have treated the hole as a minor tourist attraction, bringing their children to peer over the edge. "It's been hard to watch," Anderson said.

Officials declared the building "unsafe for occupancy" on June 27. A structural engineer will need to evaluate the site after repairs and confirm the structural integrity of the building for it to be reopened, according to Asheville city spokeswoman Polly McDaniel.

More:City: Sinkhole not caused by public pipes, building is unsafe

Where did the ground go?

The property owners attribute the sinkhole to a 48-inch pipe that "rusted out," according to Ben Woody, director of Asheville's Department of Development Services.

The pipe contains a culverted stream that was rerouted and paved over when the property was originally developed, Woody said.

It appears the ground above the rusted pipe was gradually carried away by the culverted stream until the asphalt above collapsed. All that sediment was washed into the wetlands above Beaver Lake, where it was discovered by officials from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, according to McDaniel.

More:Merrimon Avenue sinkhole: 27 feet and growing

One culverted stream, six mammoth sinkholes

The western side of Merrimon Avenue, the side that abuts Beaver Lake, is already pocked with sinkhole scars. According to Anderson, a single culverted stream that runs underneath the 1000 block of Merrimon Avenue is to blame for six sinkholes in the past 15 years.

Ski Country Sports at 1000 Merrimon Avenue, just next door to the most recent ground collapse, has weathered three sinkholes, in 2006, 2007 and 2013 — all caused by failures to the culvert. Owner Craig Friedrich sued the city, alleging local government was responsible due to "an unreasonable volume" of water going through private pipes, but the court ruled against him.

A sinkhole opened at 1020 Merrimon Avenue in 2010, and another culvert failure took down part of the parking lot at 1030 Merrimon Avenue (now occupied by the North Asheville library).

Anderson said that parts of the 48-inch culvert had been replaced "piecemeal" over the years as sinkholes appeared. Since the pipe in question is not part of city infrastructure, property owners are responsible for any pipe failures that occur on (or under) their land.

The property owners at 1010 Merrimon Avenue can't yet estimate the final cost of repairs, according to their realtor.