Traffic has reopened on a street in downtown Fukuoka a week after a section of it suddenly collapsed in a giant sinkhole, knocking out gas and electricity, cutting off communications cables and halting online banking services, and prompting an evacuation advisory for the occupants of nearby buildings. It was only due to sheer luck that nobody was killed or injured in the incident that took place early in the morning of Nov. 8. Had the sinkhole appeared later in the day when traffic was heavy on the busy street that leads to JR Hakata Station, it could have caused many casualties.
Authorities closed the road to traffic around 5 a.m. when workers at the site where construction was underway to extend the local subway line noticed signs of trouble underground and evacuated the site. Two separate sinkholes started to grow and joined each other about two hours later, forming a gaping cavern that swallowed traffic light poles and sidewalks and eventually swelled in size to 30 meters long, 27 meters wide and 15 meters deep in less than three hours.
Now that the collapsed section has been repaired and the road reopened to traffic, the Fukuoka Municipal Government must identify the cause by mobilizing experts to scrutinize what happened and why, including whether there were any defects in the construction design and plan.