A sinkhole opened in Montreal at around 9 a.m. at the intersection of Guy and Ste-Catherine streets, swallowing a backhoe, according to CBC News in Canada. Officials don't expect to be able to remove the backhoe until tomorrow at the earliest.
The hole is about 24 feet long and 15 feet across, with a nine-foot depth.
City officials have developed a plan to remove the construction equipment from the hole and are waiting for the plan to receive approval so they can proceed.
Removing the machinery is complicated because there is a gas line nearby, Emilie Miskdijian, a spokeswoman for the Ville-Marie borough, where the sinkhole occurred, said. There is also a danger of additional cave-ins. The borough has submitted a plan to Quebec's workplace health and safety authority.
The sinkhole blocked traffic on Guy Street between Rene-Levesque and Maisonneuve boulevards, as well as traffic on Ste-Catherine between St-Mathieu and Guy streets.
Fraser Butler was parking his car to get his morning coffee when the road collapsed. He saw the backhoe driver get out of the backhoe, appearing uninjured.
"I was scared," Butler said. "This is not the first time we get sinkholes like this in Montreal."
A sinkhole closed down part of the St-Mathieu Street, near Ste-Catherine, just a block away, in June 2012. A month prior to that, a square of about 12 feet opened up on Sherbrooke Street, which caused a traffic detour on a busy thoroughfare that lasted for almost a month.
"Is it safe?" asked Butler, expressing a concern that is shared by many local residents.
The latest collapse may be linked to a faulty sewer pipe. Miskdijian said the borough received a call over the weekend about a water leak in the same spot. Crews arrived on Monday morning to do repairs right before the road gave out.
"We think that the water leak was because of the sewer pipe, it's a broken sewer pipe," she said. "That's what we think, but we will have to do an inspection to determine the cause."
News coverage of the sinkhole.
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