Giant Sinkhole in Japan Repaired, Street Reopens

A giant sinkhole in Japan has been repaired just days after it formed in the southwestern Japanese city of Fukuoka.

The sinkhole appeared on Tuesday, Nov. 8 on one of Fukuoka’s busiest streets, and while no one was injured, electricity, gas and water services were severely damaged as a result, BBC News noted.

“I saw a stop light fall. It was really scary,” one witness told Fuji TV, the Daily Mail noted.

The street was reopened early Tuesday morning, just a week after the Fukuoka intersection was engulfed by a 30-meter wide and 15-meter deep sinkhole, CNN noted.

“I’m surprised the road reopened in a week!” said one Twitter user.

“Impressive. That was fast,” said another.

Though the cause of the massive hole is still unclear, Motohisa Oda, a crisis management officer from Fukuoka, believes nearby construction to extend a subway tunnel underground may have contributed to the sinkhole forming, CNN noted.

City Mayor Soichiro Takashima said a group of experts would be brought in to determine what led to the sinkhole, the Telegraph reported.

In the meantime, Mayor Takashima has apologized for the incident, despite the quick repairs.

“We’re very sorry for causing great trouble,” Takashima said, according to the Daily Mail.

Takashima added that the street is now 30 times stronger than what it was prior to the massive sinkhole, which caught Kyushu’s biggest city by surprise.

This quick construction comes after a Manchester sinkhole, which took 10 months to fix, the Telegraph noted.

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