Giant Japanese Sinkhole Begins Sinking Once Again

On November 8, a huge sinkhole swallowed part of an intersection in Fukuoka, Japan, creating a hole in the street almost 100 feet wide and 50 feet deep. While the hole was repaired and the street reopened about a week later, it has begun sinking yet again, according to Mashable.

The city’s mayor, Soichiro Takashima, initially said that after the two-day filling period, the new road was 30 times stronger than it had been before the sinkhole appeared. The hole was probably caused by underground construction work on a subway line extension.

At 1:45 a.m. on Saturday, November 26, police closed the rebuilt section of road near the city’s Hakata railway station because it began sinking again, sagging by about 2.8 inches. No one was injured, nor were there any gas leaks or power outages reported, and the road was reopened to traffic by 5:30 a.m.

According to The Japan Times, the joint venture responsible for the subway construction warned that sagging could occur again, and promised to close the road if it sank by more than an inch. On his Facebook page, the mayor pledged that officials would keep monitoring the height of the street for further sinkage; in another Facebook post, he also apologized for not warning citizens of the possibility of the road dropping again.