Skip to main content

VIDEO: A sinking feeling in Florence

Be careful where you park your car in Florence, Italy. Might be best to not leave your vehicle next to the River Arno. In this case, 20 drivers returned to their cars only to find them sitting in a 6.5m deep sinkhole next to the river. The ‘hole’ appeared after what media reports said was a water main burst that flooded the road’s substructure, dropping nearly 200m of pavement into rushing water from the ruptured pipe. Vehicles remained out of the river, thanks to a brick wall. Nobody was injured in the
May 27, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Be careful where you park your car in Florence, Italy. Might be best to not leave your vehicle next to the River Arno.

In this case, 20 drivers returned to their cars only to find them sitting in a 6.5m deep sinkhole next to the river.

The ‘hole’ appeared after what media reports said was a water main burst that flooded the road’s substructure, dropping nearly 200m of pavement into rushing water from the ruptured pipe. Vehicles remained out of the river, thanks to a brick wall.

Nobody was injured in the collapse and emergency crews quickly began the cleanup of the area that leads up to the city’s iconic Ponte Vecchio. Tourists were quick to capitalise on the sight by taking ‘selfies’ with the sunken parking area in the background.

Related Content

  • Austria's new tunnel meets safety regulations
    July 13, 2012
    New safety regulations and high traffic volumes require new tunnel construction all across Europe. Mike Woof reports Anew highway tunnel now being built in Austria will boost traffic volumes and safety standards on a key European route. The existing Pfänder Tunnel lies close to Austria's borders with Germany and Switzerland and carries a heavy traffic volume, so a new parallel tunnel is under construction to help spread this load, increasing capacity as well as safety. Stringent tunnel safety standards have
  • Brazil roads repaired with Wirtgen equipment
    November 6, 2018
    A large milling machine from Wirtgen has been used to help repair busy roads in the vicinity of São Paulo in Brazil. The roads provide important transport connections as they link São Paulo with Santos, Brazil’s largest port. The Anchieta-Imigrantes highway system provides the main link between the metropolitan region of São Paulo and the port of Santos, the busiest port in Latin America. Construction of the Anchieta highway began in 1947, with Imigrantes following at the start of the 1970s. Today the Anch
  • The Highways Agency aims to address workzone crashes
    April 10, 2013
    The UK’s Highways Agency is telling drivers to take extra care and to stick speed limits at roadworks, to prevent deaths and injuries among both road users and road workers. Eight road workers have been killed in the last three years while improving and maintaining the strategic road network in England. In addition there are many near misses, with members of the public driving through coned off areas or colliding with works vehicles. The UK Government is investing additional funding in road improvements acr
  • British Columbia decides on Massey Tunnel
    August 20, 2021
    Canada’s Pacific coast province of British Columbia has announced the George Massey Tunnel replacement will be another tunnel and not a bridge as decided earlier.