What to know

Japan Fixes Sinkhole Within 2 Days

japan sinkhole 2016.jpg

The world is amazed by how Japan fixed a massive sinkhole in under two days.

Last week, a 30-meter-wide sinkhole cracked up in the middle of the Japanese city of Fukuoka, and less than a week later the road is good as new.

It was early in the morning on Tuesday, November 8, that the hole split open and put nearby buildings at risk of collapse. As we all know about the Japanese efficient workmanship and innovation, they did not let us down. While reconstruction efforts of this scale usually take months and sometimes years in other countries, it took the city less than 48 hours to have the street filled, paved and ready for business.

japan-massive-sinkhole-before-and-after

The busy street reopened on Tuesday, a week after it had collapsed, after engineers and experts tested it and declared it safe for usage.

The reconstruction work included repairs to a sewage pipe and the replacement of traffic lights and utility poles that were swallowed whole when the sinkhole suddenly emerged. The hole had also caused power outages, and there were some reports in failures of gas and water supplies around the area, which were all fixed as well.

The 30-meters wide and 15-meters deep sinkhole was caused by nearby underground construction, according to the mayor of Fukuoka, Soichiro Takashima, who said that the affected ground was now 30 times stronger than before.

It didn’t take long for “before and after” photos to go online and people just lost it. Some were amazed by the impressive time it took the city to repair the damage done, others compared the situation to similar ones in their countries, where it took the local government a lot longer than two days to fix.

You Might Also Like