Perth sinkhole causes traffic chaos
A tradie had a lucky escape this morning when his van fell into a sinkhole that appeared on a busy Perth street.
The gaping hole was caused by a burst water main.
Hundreds of litres of water poured into the street, resulting in peak-hour chaos.
“I stopped and when I got the green light the car was stuck. I just got out of the car and I saw the whole front end was in the hole,” said the driver, Jesse Pailas.
The road opened up when a water main burst on Vincent Street in North Perth.
“You could see water gushing out where my van eventually sunk in, but you could see water coming out of the cracks down the road and the sidewalk,” Mr Pailas said.
At Charles Street, the water poured out of the pipe for more than an hour.
The precious water was being wasted at a time when Perth is experiencing a severe heat wave.
This particular pipe was installed in 1914 and it was refurbished in 1948.
The Water Corporation said it should have a life span of 80 years.
But it is one of many old pipes that have burst in and around Perth over the past year.
Burst water mains in the city are now at a six-year high.
“Last year alone, there was a 15 percent increase in burst water mains,” Shadow Minister for Water David Kelly said.
The government said strategies are in place.
The Water Minister, Mia Davies, said: “By May we will have put in place 350 acoustic sensors on water pipes in the Perth CBD, which will enable us to identify much earlier any leaks and breaks.”
The Water Corporation would not say how much water was lost Wednesday’s incident.
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