Sinkhole In Montreal Consumes Backhoe, Worker [Video]

A sinkhole in Montreal that swallowed a backhoe as well as the person operating the equipment has presented a logistical head-scratcher for officials.

The sinkhole in Montreal is currently fenced off, the backhoe lodged inside, the worker long free.

But the sudden depression has caused another, less immediate problem due to the backhoe stuck in the hole — safely extracting the equipment from the crater.

A local news source explains that officials removing the backhoe from the sinkhole in Montreal have to plan very carefully because the situation presents several safety considerations:

“The hole opened up at at about 9 a.m. ET at the intersection of Guy and Ste-Catherine streets. It measures about eight metres long, five metres across, and three metres deep… A spokeswoman for the Ville-Marie borough, Emilie Miskdjian, says removing the machinery is complicated because there is a gas line nearby. There is also a risk of further cave-ins.”

The sinkhole appeared when workers began to address a pipe issue, and Miskdjian says:

“We think that the water leak was because of the sewer pipe … it’s a broken sewer pipe. That’s what we think, but we will have to do an inspection to determine the cause.”

Rahman Esmaili owns a pool hall across from the sinkhole in Montreal. He says that the pipe has caused problems in the past:

“My insurance were working very hard to figure out a way to stop this water because its damaging us every day — costing me my operation so far… For a whole week, we didn’t have any business down there.”

Until the backhoe is removed, the sinkhole in Montreal’s repair trajectory remains unclear.