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

  • ZF looks to combine hybrid module with cPower CVT transmission
    April 19, 2013
    ZF used bauma 2013 to show the next stage of development for its cPower continuously variable transmission (CVT). By combining the transmission with a hybrid module, ZF said greater operating efficiencies were available from the integration of start/stop technology and energy recovery from regenerative braking. Potentially, the hybrid drive system has the ability to boost fuel efficiency by up to 25% in addition to the 20% higher operating efficiency already offered by the cPower transmission, said ZF.
  • New route slashes HGV Carlisle city centre through traffic by over third
    August 17, 2012
    The number of Heavy Goods Vehicles travelling through Carlisle’s city centre is estimated to have been reduced by more than a third since the new multi-million euro Carlisle Northern Development Route opened in February 2012.
  • Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress 2016 in Prague calls for papers and speakers
    October 8, 2014
    The 6th Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress, which is being organised by EAPA & Eurobitume in Prague in the Czech Republic on June 1 to 3 2016, has put out a call for papers. Speakers and authors should submit their abstracts online say the Eurasphalt & Eurobitume Congress 2016 organisers and all papers submitted will receive DOI (Digital Object Identifier) indexation. The organisers say that they “recognise the trend towards online availability of publications and it is the intention to index the proceeding
  • LiuGong turns its attention to Europe
    January 6, 2017
    Chinese group explains why it is expanding into Europe, stressing the importance of the market to the long-term health of the industry – and Dressta, the Polish firm LiuGong acquired, talks about its own plans.