Three sinkholes have recently opened up on roads in Cape Town, creating a major hazard for passing vehicles and pedestrians.
The first hole formed on the 18th of August on Langverwacht Road in Kuils River, with the cause being established as a burst pipe, according to capetownetc.
Another two sinkholes then opened today, the 21st of August.
One formed on the side of a road in Lavender Hill near a residential area with several blocks of flats, while the second hazard occurred on the southbound lane of Montague Drive in Montague Gardens near the John Montague Centre shopping mall.
A new kind of pothole
Images of the two most recent sinkholes were posted to TrafficSA, including a video taken by a passing onlooker showing that a large FAUN Rotopress garbage truck had fallen into the Lavender Hill sinkhole, with its rear end now resting below the street.
Cape Town – #SinkHole Lavender Hill pic.twitter.com/eUt6SwAtQi
— TrafficSA (@TrafficSA) August 21, 2023
The city’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, Alderman Grant Twigg, confirmed that a section of the road gave way when the truck drove over it at around 09h00 this morning and that there was no visible sign of damage on the road surface. One adult woman sustained minor injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital.
It is currently unknown what caused the hole to form, however, the matter is being investigated by the city’s Water and Sanitation Directorate.
“‘Currently the affected area has been cordoned off for safety reasons. The main priority at this stage is to ensure the area is structurally safe to recover the vehicle and then the necessary assessment of the area can be done to determine the cause of the incident, among which is a sewer collapse,” said the city’s mayoral committee.
Source: City of Cape Town.
Emergency responders and towing services were brought to the scene to lift the rubbish truck from the gap. The city is urging residents to stay away from the site for safety reasons while it conducts an assessment for the repair process.
This is not the first time that a refuse truck has been the victim of a sinkhole in Cape Town, as just over a month ago another truck was caught in a hole that formed on De Villiers Street in Strand.
The city is also attending to the other recently-formed sinkhole in Montague Gardens and has yet to confirm the cause. It will provide an official statement on the matter in due course, it told TopAuto.
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