The ground falls out from under Beijing's business district (again)

Fixing the sinkhole (image by The Beijing News)

Yesterday afternoon, a sinkhole opened up on Jianguo Road at the west end of Dawang Bridge.

The hole spanned two lanes and led to gridlock in both directions for six hours before it was repaired last night.

Covering an area of roughly 10 meters, yesterday's sinkhole was an order of magnitude smaller than the one that opened up just around the corner back in November, 2007.

According to Fang Ping, deputy director of Beijing's Roadway Administration Bureau, the cause for both sinkholes was soft ground. The ground beneath the city's old roadway network is relatively soft; its newer roads are built overtop firmer ground.

Great and lesser holes of the people

The image on the left comes from the cover of the Beijing Times for November 30, 2007. On the right is a Xinhua image of yesterday's sinkhole. Today's Beijing Times cover featured the incident too, but nothing is visible beyond a horrific traffic jam.

This article is from Danwei.org.

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