© Steve Somerville/Metroland
A giant sinkhole, the size of a backyard swimming pool, swallowed several trees and a portion of the boulevard at Langstaff Rd. and Fairview Ave. in Richmond Hill.
The hole was created by a water main break the afternoon of Jan. 30, said Diogo Oliveira, the town's manager of water and waste water.
It forced the closure of Langstaff to through traffic for at least 24 hours.
Water main breaks are not uncommon with aging infrastructure, Oliveira said, but this one, which occurred around 1:30 p.m., caused more significant damage than usual.
The hole - six metres by five metres at the surface and almost double the size below ground - damaged the boulevard, swallowed trees on the embankment and will require the relocation of a nearby hydro pole.
Comment: Clearly this crater/sinkhole's appearance isn't such a common occurrence and, when we take into account the huge increase in sightings around the world, this could be part of a more concerning phenomenon: