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

  • Bitumen technology: counting carbon emissions from road works
    March 13, 2024
    This month we look at accurate carbon counting, a biobinder that does not come at a premium and efforts to increase recycled content - Kristina Smith reports
  • New methods for non-destructive concrete testing
    August 29, 2017
    How best is it possible to assess the state of concrete in a road pavement, bridge deck or tunnel wall? One of the most reliable ways is to take a core of concrete from the structure to analyse and test in the laboratory. One downside to this method is that doing the test creates weak points in the structure that must then be repaired. Another is that the frequency of such cores cannot be too great – so it is possible that some problem areas will be missed. New technologies from the world of geospatial eng
  • Fan’s Ford Focus finds favour with Flavor Fav
    December 2, 2015
    Pop stars are noted for taking the most outrageous limousines to their gigs. But what should a singing group do if their transport doesn’t show up, leaving them stranded in a strange city? That was the question facing New York’s hip-hop legend Public Enemy when recently in the United Kingdom they found themselves in a record store and their taxi to their gig nowhere to be found. Public Enemy had booked a normal taxi amid their concern that their large tour bus could not navigate the narrow city street
  • Cops stop caped crusader
    June 20, 2012
    Video footage has emerged of US police apprehending caped crusader, Batman, at the wheel of a Lamborghini. Hawk-eyed police spotted that the vehicle did not bear valid license plates as instead it bore the Batman symbol. As a precautionary measure, the police pulled the errant Lamborghini over. When the driver emerged from the vehicle he was dressed from head to foot in a Batman costume and explained he was on his way to a local hospital where he intended to entertain children in the cancer ward. The police