Wednesday, June 15, 2016

That Big Drop

So, a week ago today we had that whole sinkhole thing happen here in the city, just east of the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive. I was downtown on Saturday morning, and crossed the pedestrian bridge that links the Hudson's Bay store on the right to the Rideau Centre mall on the left. I was also there on Sunday; the final two shots are from that day, and as you can see on both days, the work down below was the subject of much interest. The work crews were busy, and the view of the sinkhole was good from here. The Chateau Laurier and Parliament Hill can be glimpsed in the background of some of these shots, as well as onlookers on the bridge itself. After it was all said and done, and no one was injured, a lot of locals started doing memes and tweets with a sense of humour to them (and there are those who say this city is the place that fun forgot). I posted some in the days after the collapse, and am featuring some, as well as putting a meme or two on one of my own shots, in my writing blog post for today, which is going live at the same time as this one. Go on over and have a look.

39 comments:

  1. Hi William, it is good to know that no one is hurt. Sinkhole of that size is scary. We do have mini sinkholes here. Have a beautiful day!

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  2. Talk about a sinking feeling.

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  3. What did they do with it? Fill it up with what?

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  4. It is incredible that no one was killed or injured. I wonder what the time frame is in fixing the hole. Must be madness for drivers.

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  5. OMG - that is crazy. But so lucky no one was killed

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  6. @Nancy: the street had been closed for construction to all but buses and cabs. Had a bus gone in there just as it collapsed, this would have been different.

    @Stuart: indeed!

    @Marianne: they fill it with concrete.

    @Francisco: thanks!

    @Bill: they hope to have the work done by Canada Day.

    @Hilary: very lucky!

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  7. That's scary! (But your memes are still pretty funny!)

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  8. I love the journalistic, industrial look to today's photos. Very Andreas Gursky-like.

    Janis
    GDP

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  9. I remember seeing this on Facebook when I was in Sydney last week. Blimey it's a miracle noone was hurt, how on earth does something like this get 'fixed'?

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  10. we saw a sink hole the other day around here. they happen all the time. kind of scary. makes you think? thankful no one was hurt. ( ;

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  11. There will be much said on this mess as far as to what and who caused it. I wander about the effect on nearby buildings.

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  12. @Norma: thank you!

    @Janis: thanks!

    @Grace: very carefully. They are taking their time.

    @Beth: this was about the worst spot in the city for this sort of thing to happen.

    @Red: I know there has been mention in the press here about one of the earliest things involved in this whole thing being checking on the stability of the nearest buildings- because the sinkhole was very close, particularly on the north side.

    @Karl: it is! Five metres deep, as I understand.

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  13. It looks like they have their work cut out for them to clean that up and fix the hole.

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  14. It is big, but thankfully it wasn't worse and nobody was killed.

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  15. Man, that was quite a hole, I am glad no one was hurt.
    Strange things those sinkholes. It seems there are more and more of them, or do we here more about them because of internet and social media?

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  16. I'll bet a bunch of folks got up in the morning and said, "Hey, let's go look at the sinkhole."

    I'm not too impressed with it, though. We have them in Florida and they suck in entire houses - sometimes more than one! The scary thing is a small sinkhole opened up just a block away from our house.

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  17. That is a very large sink hole. Lowell may scoff at this one but I have never seen one and don't want one near me---large or small.
    I like the one somebody did with Godzilla emerging. Some one does have a sense of humor.
    MB

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  18. @Sharon: granted, some of what you see here was already involved in the work that was going on- especially on the left side.

    @Linda: we got lucky as a city that it went the way it did. Imagine that happening on Canada Day with pedestrians crossing there.

    @Luis: thanks! One of those had an angle that comes across like one of yours.

    @Jan: I think it's that we hear more of them, and perhaps in this case because of the location. If this had happened out in the suburbs, it would have only made local news.

    @Lowell: it has drawn a lot of attention!

    @MB: there are quite a lot of creative people out there. I have no problem at all adding text to pics, but I'd be out of my depth trying to add a pic into a pic.

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  19. oh my goodness, how scary! so glad nobody was hurt...very interesting pictures!

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  20. There was one just this week on my daughter's street in Texas. The cab of the garbage truck fell in. Thankfully no one was injured.

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  21. Lots of collapses like these in NE PA, usually because of abandoned mines underneath.

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  22. It's pretty big. I'm glad no one was hurt.

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  23. @Tanya: I'll have to photograph the pavement of all things, come Canada Day!

    @RedPat: it really was.

    @Janey: there have been a couple of other notable incidents in recent years here involving sinkholes.

    @Revrunner: in this case the worry still is that it might have to do with the LRT tunnel, which has been dug beneath here.

    @Lois: the city was lucky in that respect.

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  24. Yes, the crew was busy, but it still looked like a mess. So thankful no one was injured.

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  25. That's pretty awe inspiring. From the elevated perspective it looks like the far side of the hole is higher than the near side. Has anything been said about whether the nearby buildings have been undermined? It looks like there's a hole under the tan building to the left.

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  26. Be careful where you step, around there.

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  27. @Mari: everyone lucked out in that respect.

    @Kay: things are a bit more complicated- the area on the left was under construction, hence the area that's quite low there- it was already there. It's sound though, as they reopened the mall the day after, when they'd had a chance to check things out. I think for the businesses around here, most things are getting back to normal.

    @Eve: oh yes!

    @Cloudia: indeed.

    @Carolann: it would have been tragic if anyone had gotten hurt. This way it's an inconvenience and a subject of interest.

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