Skip to main content

A sinkhole in St Albans near London swallows up the road

Around 20 residents of St Albans, a town near London, were evacuated after a huge sinkhole appeared overnight. The hole, 20m in diameter and 10m deep, cut right across at the road and well into an adjoining garden, leaving one family’s car stranded on the driveway. Residents are said to have heard a crash before the huge crater appeared, according to a BBC report. The local fire service said it had been aware of a small hole that was due to be filled in, but a resident called the station at 1:30 in the mor
October 9, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Around 20 residents of St Albans, a town near London, were evacuated after a huge sinkhole appeared overnight.

The hole, 20m in diameter and 10m deep, cut right across at the road and well into an adjoining garden, leaving one family’s car stranded on the driveway.

Residents are said to have heard a crash before the huge crater appeared, according to a %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal BBC report Visit BBC page false http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34411214 false false%>.

The local fire service said it had been aware of a small hole that was due to be filled in, but a resident called the station at 1:30 in the morning to say the hole had "opened up substantially", the BBC reported.

The local authority, the Hertfordshire County Council, said a small hole had appeared in footpath nearby and workers were scheduled to soon fill it in.

One heavily pregnant woman was woken by the sound of the noise, “like an earthquake". Her husband jumped out of bed, looked out the window and said the road had gone.

"If this doesn't bring on my labour then nothing will," she said.

Related Content

  • Let’s go party
    October 3, 2018
    Some friends in the US decided to turn a toy Barbie Mustang car into something rather more entertaining. The men fitted a Honda motorcycle engine and new driveline components, including go-kart tyres. This allowed a top speed of 115km/h, which it could reach in just six seconds, making it rather lively and spirited and also difficult to control. The vehicle is definitely not likely to be made road legal any time soon and nor is a model with a similar performance ever likely to be available from the original
  • Armenia’s road safety problem is critical
    March 9, 2018
    Armenia is facing a crisis in road safety, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The rate of road traffic fatalities in Armenia is 18.3/100,000 population according to the WHO 2015 Global Status Report on Road Safety. This is the highest rate in any Eastern European or Caucasus country, and costs an estimated 4.62% of GDP/year. Establishing partnerships with local authorities is a vital step towards improving road safety, saving lives and developing the economy. EASST partner Poghos Shahinyan,
  • Winnipeg man celebrates years of road works outside his shop
    July 1, 2016
    After more than a decade of road works and repairs outside his business, one Winnipeg, Canada, resident told World Highways that enough is enough. “I’ve got no malice towards the contractors,” Gordon Partridge told World Highways. “Contractors are simply where they are told to be. It’s the city officials. The left hand doesn‘t always know what the right hand is doing.” What he has is “ambivalence and frustration at the situation”. As the health centre owner and chiropractor explains, “there’s two seas
  • Aceh Road Rehabilitation project wins key IRF GRAA award
    May 15, 2014
    The 9.1 magnitude earthquake and resulting series of tsunamis that struck Sumatra, Indonesia, in 2004 destroyed communities in 11 countries. Hardest hit was the Indonesian province of Aceh; an estimated 174,000 people were killed and 500,000 displaced. Basic infrastructure was left in ruin while the primary road along the west coast was destroyed. Vehicles making the trip had to navigate unpaved gravel roads, one-lane temporary bridges, and improvised ferries. Given the cataclysmic events that devastated th