Crews in Montreal carefully removed a backhoe from a giant sinkhole in the city’s downtown core Tuesday evening, after hours of careful planning to avoid causing further damage.
Crews spent roughly four hours Tuesday morning turning off all the natural gas in the area around Ste. Catherine St. near Guy St., where the backhoe tumbled through the sinkhole Monday morning.
Two cranes were then brought in to attach to the backhoe. However, before they could begin lifting the big piece of machinery to solid ground, a firefighter went into the hole to ensure the area was structurally sound.
The backhoe was lifted out around 6:30 p.m.
Richard Deschamps of the city’s infrastructure department said crews will have to assess the damage before they can estimate when the street will be reopened.
“We’re going to go as fast as possible, but in a secure way,” Deschamps told reporters at the scene. “I would like to give you a time frame, but I can’t risk that because I don’t have information about what’s going on under the pipes with the aqueducts.”
The city has confirmed that road work was done in the same intersection earlier in the year. Last February, city crews repaired a sewer line from the 19th century in the same block.
Meanwhile, area business owners told CTV Montreal that they're frustrated by the street closure.
"We're all suffering and business is down… and with this, it's like killing everybody," Second Cup owner Ghassan Haidar said.
Rahman Esmaili, the owner of pool hall Sharx, said he is losing thousands of dollars per day.
“It’s a mess, it’s a warzone,” he told CTV Montreal. “We have no idea what’s going on.”
The sinkhole opened up Monday morning just as crews were preparing to dig at the busy downtown intersection to investigate an underground water main leak.
As the backhoe began to dig, the ground opened up and swallowed the equipment.
The operator of the backhoe was taken to hospital to be treated for shock; there is no word that he suffered serious physical injury.
With a report from CTV Montreal's Tania Krywiak
