A massive sinkhole that swallowed a main road in a small Quebec town could take three months to repair.
It’s the second such sinkhole collapse in just a week in Rawdon, about 60 kilometres north of Montreal.
The latest collapse began just after 6 a.m. Tuesday. It continued to cave in over the next three hours, opening a hole that stretches across the two-lane road and extends 20 metres deep. City crews expect the hole could grow even bigger.
No one was hurt.
“Well yikes! I was just glad there were no buses, no cars that were going over at that time,” said Susan Beaudette, who works at one of two schools near the sink hole.
The municipality had been keeping an eye on the stretch of road for three weeks, pumping away water that was accumulating nearby and regularly inspecting the pavement. The last inspection was just hours before the collapse.
“It happens sometimes. We don’t know exactly what happened, if it was the rain or the snow thaw. We don’t know,” said Bruno Guilbault, mayor of Rawdon.
Heavy rain and spring thaw has already eroded part of Highway 341 nearby and a major landslide has closed part of Highway 25 for at least two months.
“Rawdon is built mainly on sand, sand everywhere, so of course if you get any type of water movement, of course, sand doesn't stick,” said resident John St-Denis.
Residents remember a smaller crater in the same location two years ago.
Guilbault says the road was fixed on one side. He says it’s possible the repairs were not done properly.
“To me you're going to have to take something more serious now because you have two schools that are using this every single day,” said St-Denis.
