Drivers on Canning Highway are warned to exercise caution after a sinkhole opened in a left lane on Tuesday morning.

The hole forced the closure of the left-hand lane of Canning Highway westbound, near the Esplanade in Mount Pleasant, at around 8.30am.

Main Roads advised there may be possible delays while crew conduct emergency repairs.

The sinkhole is around 30cm wide and one-metre deep, and is believed to have developed from an existing pot hole in the road.

Edith Cowan University associate professor Sanjay Kumar Shukla said excessive rain was a known cause of sinkholes, and the Mount Pleasant area has recorded a daily average of 10.2 millimetres since the beginning of August. 

"The sinkhole that has developed on Canning Highway this afternoon is likely a result of Perth's recent wet weather," he said.

Professor Shukla said it appeared that the surface water from recent rains had seeped into the ground beneath the localised low-lying bituminous road surface.

This is believed to have caused the road base materials to migrate under the influence of seepage forces towards some form of weakly compacted zones - which is understood to have led to the sinkhole.