Sinkhole in downtown Montreal swallows car
06-06-2010, 01:03 PM
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Construction crews say a section of Ste. Catherine street will be closed for three days to repair a hole that opened up Saturday afternoon underneath a car.
However they have already evaluated the hole, and determined that drivers can continue to use two lanes of the street while they are working.
Jean Dabel was driving east about 2 p.m., in the righthand lane of Ste. Catherine between Metcalfe and Mansfield, when he said he felt as if his front right tire had blown out.
"I was driving. I felt like I had a flat tire... Step out of the car and I saw what you could see right now," said Dabel.
What he could see was the front end of his Volvo sitting in a hole more than a metre across by about 60 centimetres wide.
Pedestrians could not believe their eyes.
"He was driving slowly then I saw a little crack, then bang! The whole asphalt just went right through," said one man.
The hole itself is several metres deep, and the break in the asphalt shows that nothing is supporting the roadway for an area about the size of two cars.
CTV News reporter Aphrodite Salas was on the scene for another story, and she was surprised by people's reaction.
"People are jumping around the hole, going up to it and taking pictures standing beside it," said Salas. "But the hole is growing. Slowly, but the road is bending down around this hole."
One witness remembered construction crews working on this block just last year.
"Wow. like what if I'd been driving that car," she said. "I'm afraid of getting my licence now."
There was a water main break in that same block about 18 months ago, and that leak left metres of water in the basement of Simons department store.
After 20 minutes emergency services arrived on the scene and cordoned off the block.
Police had to repeatedly remove pedestrians, who were ducking under tape to get a closer look at the hole.
Sylvain Plourde, a foreman for the city's sewer and waterworks system, says a sewer runs under that stretch of road, and a leak has obviously washed away the ground under the asphalt.
The site will have to be excavated, the sewer repaired, and the hole filled in.
Plourde estimates it will take three days to repair the damage.
Dabel walked away from the crash, none the worse for wear, but his car will need repairs.
However they have already evaluated the hole, and determined that drivers can continue to use two lanes of the street while they are working.
Jean Dabel was driving east about 2 p.m., in the righthand lane of Ste. Catherine between Metcalfe and Mansfield, when he said he felt as if his front right tire had blown out.
"I was driving. I felt like I had a flat tire... Step out of the car and I saw what you could see right now," said Dabel.
What he could see was the front end of his Volvo sitting in a hole more than a metre across by about 60 centimetres wide.
Pedestrians could not believe their eyes.
"He was driving slowly then I saw a little crack, then bang! The whole asphalt just went right through," said one man.
The hole itself is several metres deep, and the break in the asphalt shows that nothing is supporting the roadway for an area about the size of two cars.
CTV News reporter Aphrodite Salas was on the scene for another story, and she was surprised by people's reaction.
"People are jumping around the hole, going up to it and taking pictures standing beside it," said Salas. "But the hole is growing. Slowly, but the road is bending down around this hole."
One witness remembered construction crews working on this block just last year.
"Wow. like what if I'd been driving that car," she said. "I'm afraid of getting my licence now."
There was a water main break in that same block about 18 months ago, and that leak left metres of water in the basement of Simons department store.
After 20 minutes emergency services arrived on the scene and cordoned off the block.
Police had to repeatedly remove pedestrians, who were ducking under tape to get a closer look at the hole.
Sylvain Plourde, a foreman for the city's sewer and waterworks system, says a sewer runs under that stretch of road, and a leak has obviously washed away the ground under the asphalt.
The site will have to be excavated, the sewer repaired, and the hole filled in.
Plourde estimates it will take three days to repair the damage.
Dabel walked away from the crash, none the worse for wear, but his car will need repairs.
06-06-2010, 01:07 PM
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