The plane trees, utility poles, and traffic signal poles by the roadside all fell into a big pit. Repair personnel were working on the electrical circuit, along with a Soxhlet extraction instrument.
On the afternoon of May 11, the pedestrian walkway at the intersection of Shuyuan Road and Xiangyang Road suddenly collapsed, creating a large pit about 3 square meters in size and nearly 3 meters deep. A utility pole, a signal light pole, and a large tree all fell into the pit. Although no one was injured in the incident, nearly a thousand households experienced a three-hour power outage due to repairs on the electrical equipment. According to construction workers, frequent recent rainfall had caused the soil to become loose, leading to the ground collapse.
A three-meter-deep pit appears on the sidewalk
"I don't know the reason, but a large hole appeared on the sidewalk at the intersection of Shuyuan Road and Xiangyang Road," Mr. Wang, a citizen, reported to our news hotline 96663 at around 5 p.m. on the 11th.
Upon hearing the news, reporters rushed to the scene and saw a pit about 3 square meters in size and nearly 3 meters deep on the west side of Xiangyang Road's pedestrian walkway. A utility pole, a tree, a row of guardrails, and a signal light pole all leaned into the pit. The crossbar of the signal light hung suspended in the air, but the light itself had malfunctioned.
"At the time, it was very frightening as the utility pole suddenly toppled over," said the owner of a nearby store. The incident occurred around 3:30 p.m., with no prior warning. The utility pole suddenly tilted, and a large pit appeared on the road surface. Since this location was near a construction site, workers from the site quickly arrived upon hearing the news.
Because the signal light pole fell into the pit, its crossbar tilted, making it unable to properly direct vehicle traffic. Additionally, the area of the collapsed road was urgently closed off. During the interview, which coincided with the rush hour, vehicles were abundant, and cars traveling from Shuyuan Road to Xiangyang Road could not proceed normally. Traffic police rerouted the vehicles and directed those intending to travel from Shuyuan Road to Xiangyang Road to detour.
More than a thousand households without power for three hours
Reporters learned that since the bottom of the utility pole had fallen into the pit and tilted, the power department subsequently arrived at the scene for emergency repairs. "Fortunately, the utility pole did not completely fall, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable," a power repair worker told reporters. The utility pole carried ten thousand volts of high voltage, and if the high-voltage line had fallen to the ground, the possibility of injury to people would have been very significant. "More than a thousand households in the surrounding area temporarily lost power." At around 5 p.m., maintenance personnel paused the electricity supply to begin repairs. Meanwhile, the power department mobilized a crane to straighten the utility pole, preventing it from tilting further during the repair process.
Later that evening, reporters learned that after the efforts of the repair personnel, power was restored to the more than a thousand affected households at around 7:50 p.m., approximately three hours after the power outage began.
Rainfall causes soil looseness
Reporters learned that the incident did not result in any casualties. So what exactly caused the sudden ground collapse? A relevant official from the construction site near the pedestrian walkway explained that due to concentrated rainfall in recent periods, the soil became loose, resulting in the unexpected event. "In the future, we will arrange dedicated personnel to conduct safety inspections of the surrounding pedestrian walkways to prevent such incidents from happening again."
By the reporter Xu Xin Dong, Liu Xin; photos by Zhang Wei, a reporter from our newspaper.
■ Related News
No abnormalities found in the sewage network of the collapsed road section
Our report on May 11 (by reporters Xu Xin Dong and Liu Xin) - On the noon of May 10, a No. 125 bus traveling near the Hai Da Laoshan Campus on the Binhai Avenue encountered a sudden bulge in the road, causing the bus to leap into the air despite attempts to avoid it (reported in our paper on May 11). Regarding the cause of the road bulge, Mr. Hou from the Drainage Management Department of the Laoshan District Municipal Public Utilities Bureau stated on the 11th that they inspected the underground sewage network of the accident-prone section afterward and found no abnormalities.
"After our investigation, the road indeed bulged, but it quickly returned to normal," Mr. Hou said. Beneath this road section is a sewage pipeline. Afterward, they inspected this drainage pipe and found that the sewage network functioned normally without any anomalies. Moreover, the manhole covers on the road were undamaged. The exact cause remains temporarily unclear. Additionally, four injured passengers received treatment and are now out of danger.