Ottawa sinkhole swallows car on highway

Gonzo

The Living Force
I didn't see this covered yet. During yesterday's afternoon rush hour traffic, a sinkhole opened up on the highway, not far from my home. A car fell nose first into it, but the driver was fortunately spared any serious injury.

This is a major highway and it is expected repairs will take several days.

Story covered by several news orgs, including the CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/09/05/ottawa-sinkhole-man-escapes-highway-174.html

Sinkhole could close Ottawa highway for days

Highway 174 eastbound could be closed for days as sinkhole grows to size of 'Olympic pool'
An Ottawa man escaped a highway sinkhole, which has grown to the size of an "Olympic-sized pool", after his car was swallowed during afternoon rush hour yesterday.

Juan Pedro Unger told CBC News he was driving home eastbound on Highway 174 in the east Ottawa community of Orleans when he saw a black patch ahead in his lane near the Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard exit.

At first, Unger said, he thought it was a tarp. But when he discovered it was a large hole, it was too late to stop.

"I couldn't make a radical manoeuvre, it could have caused an accident," he said. "I just tried to come to a stop, but I couldn't and it just sunk in."

Unger's silver four-door sedan went nose first into the sinkhole just after 5 p.m. ET Tuesday.

He said there was a large banging sound as the car rattled around in the hole. Only its bumper did not go below the surface.

Fear of car sinking further
Unger hung from his seatbelt and he said he thought of two options — either try to get out, or stay in the car and wait for help.

At first, he feared a bus or car would come along and land on his car. But then he also recognized there was eroding water and pavement beneath him, and he feared the vehicle could sink further.

"There were two big gaps with water flowing into them like a river was forming, and completely pitch black under it," Unger said.

"Those two holes, you couldn't tell how deep they were. They could be a metre, they could be 100 metres."

Unger managed to get his door open and he crawled out, using the door to prop himself up. He began to climb through the hole when two witnesses reached in to help him out.

"It was a huge relief to be out and alive," he said.

Car remains in sewer pipe
The sinkhole will take days, not hours to repair, staff told the city's transportation committee Wednesday. Contractors had begun to assess the sewer pipe Tuesday as part of a $1.5-million repair job.

Staff said workers need to replace the approximately 50-year-old, 3.6-metre-wide sewer pipe that cuts across under the highway. Unger's vehicle also remains 20 metres down in an underground sewer pipe flowing towards the Ottawa River.

The city's environmental services department says there will not be environmental damage caused by the sinkhole or the vehicle. Staff are currently using dikes at the sewer outflow to prevent car contaminants from entering the sewage system.

The eastbound lanes of Highway 174 remain closed between the Blair Road and Jeanne d'Arc exits.

Officials say the closure could last days, or maybe even weeks, for the repair to be completed. Tuesday night's rainfall also made the assessment of the sinkhole more difficult for the excavation company.

Gonzo
 
Maybe off topic but...
At the end of the video they say "the best piece of survival gear you can have on you" if you drive into a sinkhole is a cell phone; "...even if it is turned off emergency crews can use GPS technology to track it down and find you."

I wonder how many people will be scared into buying cell phones. "OMG I might drive into a sinkhole someday!"

Gimme a break. :rolleyes:


Back on topic, I found a collection of the CBC articles about this incident:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/09/08/pr-highway-174-sinkhole-page.html

They say a sewer pipe collapsed, causing the sinkhole. But they don't appear to know what caused the sewer pipe to collapse:
(12th Sept.)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/09/12/ottawa-sinkhole-update-highway174.html said:
The mayor said Wednesday he requested an immediate inspection of similar city infrastructure located along critical roads as of Sept. 30. Also, Watson said he wants "an independent investigation to identify the root cause of the Highway 174 failure and to determine what, if anything, the city could have done differently," within 90 days.

An earlier article (6th Sept.) said this:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/09/06/ottawa-sinkhole-update.html said:
Infrastructure manager Alain Gonthier had told the transportation committee Wednesday the sewer pipe that collapsed was inspected just last summer.

"At that point the conditions showed that the pipe was in need of renewal, but did not show signs of imminent failure," said Gonthier.

The city inspected the westbound lanes of the 174 near the sinkhole, and said the newer pipe under those are safe.

I do wonder if the hype about America's "crumbling infrastructure" is intended to cover up damage that is occurring because of shifting ground and sinkholes?
 
From what we've been told, the pipes were just recently inspected and, because of their deteriorating condition, were immediately scheduled for replacement. However, according to the contractor, they were not able to start work immediately because an environmental impact assessment said there were certain fish spawning in ponds or rivers in the area and the construction work needed to be delayed until spawning season was over.

But something is certainly going on. Across the Ottawa river, in Gatineau on the Quebec side, a couple of sinkholes formed as well:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Severe+storm+warning+issued+Ottawa+area/7212332/story.html
Heavy rain causes two new sinkholes, fire, cancels events

OTTAWA — Lightning and heavy rain pounded the region on Saturday, causing two sinkholes to emerge in Gatineau, a fire in west Ottawa and several cancelled events.

City crews put barricades up around a sinkhole on Rue Saint Antoine and Rue Jacques-Cartier just after 10:30 a.m. Saturday, according to Gatineau police. About an hour later, police were notified of a second sinkhole Chemin de la Savane, close to Rue Saint Antoine and.

Aqueducts which collapsed during the heavy rainfall caused both sinkholes, according to Lt. Yves Comtois of Gatineau police.

It comes less than a week after a sinkhole swallowed a car and closed the eastbound lanes of Highway 174 in Ottawa.

While workers attempted to fix the holes, the weather wreaked havoc on several events planned across the region.

Organizers of the Parkinson SuperWalk fundraiser, scheduled for Saturday morning, cancelled the event for the first time in its 17-year history.

“The lightning meant it’s a safety issue,” said Alan Muir, the event’s spokesman. He urged those who had planned to take part to continue to collect pledges and wait for instructions from the Parkinson Society of Canada.

Another fundraiser, the Ride the Rideau 100-kilometre cycling event that supports cancer care at the Ottawa Hospital, began as scheduled Saturday morning. It had to be cut short near North Gower because of the weather conditions.

But while the weather placed cyclists on the sidelines, the marching band that is the Ottawa Folk Festival refused to yield. Organizers said it was going to continue, rain or shine.

A family of four, meanwhile, managed to escape from a home at 583 Tweedsmuir Ave. at around 9 a.m. after smoke started billowing from the roof from a lightning strike.

The fire was under control before 10 a.m. and contained to the attic, said spokesman Marc Messier. He estimated it caused $300,000 in damage.

The City of Ottawa had better luck than its neighbour across the Ottawa River. Spokesman Michael FitzPatrick said the heavy rainfall was causing some flooding but “nothing major — some minor backups at some catch basins that are clogged.”


Gonzo
 
Just doing a search on Sink Holes here brings back many results, not to mention the many data points collected in SotT articles.

What came to mind was something read in Donnelly's book about his hypothesis on the 'Drift' deposited by a comets tail:

THE DRIFT.

What is it?

Go out with me where yonder men are digging a well. Let us observe
the material they are casting out.

First they penetrate through a few inches or a foot or two of surface
soil; then they enter a vast deposit of sand, gravel, and clay. It
may be fifty, one hundred, five hundred, eight hundred feet, before
they reach the stratified rocks on which this drift rests.
It covers
whole continents. It is our earth. It makes the basis of our soils;
our railroads cut their way through it; our carriages drive over it;
our cities are built upon it; our crops are derived from it; the
water we drink percolates through it; on it we live, love, marry,
raise children, think, dream, and die; and in the bosom of it we will
be buried.

So these sub surface mixed layers sitting on old bedrocks, that contained the original features of streams, lakes, gullies et al, are the old planetary surface foundations that this mixture of debris sits upon; that water "peculates through". These mixed and often jumbled stratification (as seen by drilling cores), must, depending on the underline stratification and goings on, be very unstable from time to time, tumbling into created voids, creating more voids. This is accentuated by surface and sub surface water diversion and peculation.

Seismic accounts give us movements from deep fissures, but do they necessary account for materials shifting into these voids and changing water courses? Perhaps Sink Holes are a effect of our opening up of this "drift" that we take for granted as being solid, a further effect of cosmic happenings to our planetary core?

22 July 2012 said:
Q: (L) What about these sinkholes? I mean, sinkholes everywhere! This is getting to be really bizarre. I have never heard of so many sinkholes in my entire life happening all over the planet. I mean, sinkholes are kind of common in Florida, but... What the heck is going on?

A: We mentioned an infinitesimal slowing of the planet's rotation causing everything to "open up"?!

Q: (L) Yes, you did.

A: We were being literal in that instance.
Quote
[Referenced session: 17 January 1997:

Q: (Terry) Let's see, last week we concentrated on MM, and you were all busy trying to keep us out of trouble.

A: We would very much like to "concentrate" on things of worldly/universal import. What do you suppose happens when the mantle stops, or slows, and the crust does not?

Q: (Laura) Frank had a dream about this the other night, too. (Terry) About the mantle slowing? Okay, if the mantle slows and the crust doesn't... (Laura) It's like walking around the room, carrying a bowl of soup, and then stopping... (Terry) It sloshes over because the crust keeps moving... water in all of the oceans is going to slosh...

A: No sloshing.

Q: (Laura) Okay, what happens when the... is it that there will be lots of earthquakes?

A: Maybe, but what is the bigger picture?
{...}
Q: (Jan) Gravity changes...

A: Warmer...

Q: (Laura) Gravity changes, ok... gravity lessens…

A: What have we hinted about gravity.

{…}
Q: (Laura) So, if gravity is lessened, and it is the binder, then, everything... ohhh, I see what you're getting at!

(Jan) Yes, gravity is the binder. Without gravity, it just all fall s apart...

A: Not "Falls apart," my dear, it all "opens up!"

Q: (Laura) And when it opens up what happens?

A: Change.

Donnelly says “ our carriages drive over it; our cities are built upon it;, and of course are roads are compacted and paved over it. If things slow down more, further gravity reductions, it will get a lot more interesting, dangerous and painful indeed, and as the C’s say, “Change”.
 
HowToBe said:
Yeah, sounds like something's up!

What's "up" in the Ottawa case is simply decaying infrastructure. The sinkhole was a result of a steel corrugated pipe that decayed. That type of pipe has probably been in the ground since at LEAST the 80s (if not the 70s). I don't know when they switched to concrete. (Edit: the sinkhole is on the off ramp to Jeanne D'Arc boulevard into the suburb of Orleans).


In the Gatineau case, where there have been many sinkholes, floods and all around poor infrastructure, MANY cases in the last 40+ years, it is usually the cheapest contractor who gets the job, regardless of the complete engineering studies.


No big mystery here.
 

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