PC-GUY
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A chasm in Manhattan
Big hole in the street is talk of the town [font=geneva,arial] - New York Times
[/font] [font=geneva,arial][size=-2] Tuesday, June 21, 2005
[/size][/font] New York -- No one knew quite what to call it. Residents and office-bound workers near the corner of 56th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan approached it suspiciously, investigating yet another addition to the gorges that texture New York's streets and routinely punish vehicles.
But if this was a pothole, it was a new breed -- it was so deep it looked like an excavation site. Construction workers showed up almost immediately and blocked off the street. Heavy construction equipment -- backhoe loaders, actually -- rolled down the block. Barricades were set up to keep the curious away.
Maybe a meteor hit, one person remarked, or perhaps someone decided to install a 7-foot-deep pool in the middle of 56th Street, in front of a deli and a sushi restaurant.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this," said Ivan Sabio, a superintendent on West 56th Street. "This is a first."
It took some time before Sabio and the others straining their necks for a glimpse into the mother of all potholes figured it out.
At about 7 p.m. Sunday, a privately owned service line connected to a water main broke, and tons of dirt holding up the asphalt above was washed away. With no support, the pavement gave way, opening a 20-by-15-foot chasm and depriving some buildings of hot water and air-conditioning all morning. No one was reported hurt and no cars were lost.
"I told my son that that's exactly how the Grand Canyon was formed," said John Trials, who took a break from his job at Xerox at 40 West 57th St. to examine the hole around noon Monday. "It's amazing what a little water can do."
Ian Michaels, a spokesman with the city's Department of Environmental Protection who visited the site, said his agency is called out to fix hundreds of potholes every summer, but this one was an anomaly, even for a sinkhole.
"You could fit a Volkswagen in that thing," he said.
You have to see the picture
Big hole in the street is talk of the town [font=geneva,arial] - New York Times
[/font] [font=geneva,arial][size=-2] Tuesday, June 21, 2005
[/size][/font] New York -- No one knew quite what to call it. Residents and office-bound workers near the corner of 56th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan approached it suspiciously, investigating yet another addition to the gorges that texture New York's streets and routinely punish vehicles.
But if this was a pothole, it was a new breed -- it was so deep it looked like an excavation site. Construction workers showed up almost immediately and blocked off the street. Heavy construction equipment -- backhoe loaders, actually -- rolled down the block. Barricades were set up to keep the curious away.
Maybe a meteor hit, one person remarked, or perhaps someone decided to install a 7-foot-deep pool in the middle of 56th Street, in front of a deli and a sushi restaurant.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this," said Ivan Sabio, a superintendent on West 56th Street. "This is a first."
It took some time before Sabio and the others straining their necks for a glimpse into the mother of all potholes figured it out.
At about 7 p.m. Sunday, a privately owned service line connected to a water main broke, and tons of dirt holding up the asphalt above was washed away. With no support, the pavement gave way, opening a 20-by-15-foot chasm and depriving some buildings of hot water and air-conditioning all morning. No one was reported hurt and no cars were lost.
"I told my son that that's exactly how the Grand Canyon was formed," said John Trials, who took a break from his job at Xerox at 40 West 57th St. to examine the hole around noon Monday. "It's amazing what a little water can do."
Ian Michaels, a spokesman with the city's Department of Environmental Protection who visited the site, said his agency is called out to fix hundreds of potholes every summer, but this one was an anomaly, even for a sinkhole.
"You could fit a Volkswagen in that thing," he said.
You have to see the picture
