One of the challenges with construction is determining how your work can and will affect the existing conditions surrounding your job site. That’s why it’s increasingly important to not only perform proper due diligence procedures, but also react to the findings. That, unfortunately, doesn’t always happen and could potentially be what caused a massive sinkhole in Fukuoka, Japan, last week.
Around 5:15am local time, a 98 foot (30m) by 88 foot (27m) section of roadway was completely swallowed by a sinkhole. As crews were working on an underground subway line directly beneath the road, groundwater began to flow into the tunnel, according to the Asahi Shimbun. Shortly after, the road above began to collapse, exposing a flowing sewer line under the pavement. Luckily, no injuries were reported, but hundreds of residents and businesses were without power or gas, as the nearby utilities were compromised. Due to fear of the sinkhole growing, city officials ordered the hole to be filled in later that afternoon.
Perhaps even more astonishing, repairs have been made to all the utilities and the pavement in a week’s time, as the road was opened back up to the public on November 15th. After the hole was filled in, it only took crews 48 hours to repair the utilities and re-pave the roads, according to CNN. The 50 foot (15m) deep hole took roughly 8,100 cubic yards (6,200 cubic meters) of a sand and cement mixture, which the mayor of Fukuoka says is now 30 times stronger than before, reported the Guardian.
The video below was uploaded to Youtube by ODN:
On Tuesday morning, February 23, the Syracuse Fire Department responded to a call about a collapsed crane on a construction site near the university. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.