Massive sinkhole shuts down Rideau Street in downtown Ottawa
Rideau Centre mall, businesses evacuated and tourists asked to avoid area
CBC News Posted: Jun 08, 2016 10:47 AM ET Last Updated: Jun 08, 2016 2:50 PM ET
The sinkhole formed at a light rail construction site in downtown Ottawa. (@notvaleriecrew/Twitter)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/giant-sinkhole-in-ottawa-1.3622404
A giant sinkhole that rapidly filled with water has formed next to a major shopping mall in downtown Ottawa, causing a gas leak, collapsing a road and forcing the evacuation of all nearby businesses.
The sinkhole appeared at about 10:40 a.m. ET Wednesday near the corner of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive, at a light rail construction site next to the Rideau Centre. It's about two blocks east of the Château Laurier hotel.
Soon after forming, the sinkhole spread across the entirety of Rideau Street, stretching from the south sidewalk to the north sidewalk. A van parked on Rideau on the north side of the sidewalk, as well as a light standard, fell into the hole as it grew.
A large volume of water could also be seen gushing inside the sinkhole due to a watermain break, but the water was soon shut off.
Ottawa police are advising residents and tourists to avoid the area. Evacuated businesses include the Shaw Centre, a CIBC bank, a Chapters bookstore and the Rideau Centre mall.
'Too soon' to know cause
Mayor Jim Watson said at an emergency meeting of city officials Wednesday afternoon that so far, there have been no injuries or missing persons recorded.
Watson said at this point it's unclear why the sinkhole formed.
"We hope to have that answer, obviously, in the next few days," Watson said.
"We just don't know how long it's going to take … it's a significant sinkhole in the downtown core," he said.
Anthony Di Monte, the city's emergency and protective services general manager, said in addition to the watermain break, a gas leak also occurred, but the gas has since been shut off.
Power was also cut off to 850 customers as far east as King Edward Avenue and as far west as Elgin Street for two hours before being restored.
Di Monte said with emergency workers mitigating damage and stabilizing the area, they haven't yet had a chance to investigate the cause.
Collapse happened near LRT work
The sinkhole formed near a construction site for Ottawa's light rail system, a new section of which is being dug downtown. But Watson noted that the excavation work was well below where the road collapsed.
Workers were excavating the last 50 metres of the future Rideau Station when the road fell in, said Steve Cripps, director of the city's rail implementation office.
The soil conditions in the area where the road collapsed were sandy, requiring extra precautions and different mining techniques, said Cripps.
But he said it wasn't clear whether that work was connected to the collapse. The workers left the tunnel when the collapse happened and are all accounted for, said Cripps.
The circle on the far right of the map shows the location of the Rideau Station stop for Ottawa's future light rail system. Excavation of the station finished over the weekend. The sinkhole formed Wednesday morning just next to it. (City of Ottawa)
On Sunday, Mayor Watson announced on Twitter that excavation at the future Rideau Station was complete.
A construction update from last week said crews were doing waterproofing work, installing beams and rebar, and spraying concrete at the future station. A crane was also installed at the site for future work.
Before the sinkhole formed, the road was only open to buses and taxis.