On August 20, the hole kept spreading to more than 20m wide, 30m long and 7m deep, causing serious traffic jams on Hanoi's key role. The hole is very close to the USilk City apartment building, invested by the Song Da Thang Long JS Company.
The hole can continue expanding.
According to Nam Cuong Group, the investor of Le Van Luong Road, said that the road was broken because of the construction of the foundation of the USilk City building, which is located close to the road.
An official from the Hanoi Department of Traffic also said that the construction of this work was the major reason, plus the downpour on August 18-19.
However, Tran Viet Son, General Director of Song Da Thang Long, the investor of USilk City, said that the fence to protect the foundation hole of USilk City are still fixed. Water erection from the road surface proved that the pressure that caused the hole did not come from the foundation hole of the USilk City project.
Son claimed downpours in recent days caused high pressure on the drainage system and it is highly possible that the pipe was broken and this was the reason causing the sinkhole.
Comment: "Highly possible", perhaps, but downpours happen in Vietnam all the time. Sinkholes this big don't.
The Hanoi Department of Transport said it would set up two working groups to find out the reasons that caused the sinkhole on Le Van Luong road and to quickly deal with the hole.
Chief inspector of the Hanoi Department of Transport, Nguyen Hoang Giap, said that it would take at least two weeks to fix the hole.
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