Not a sink hole but its still deep

Speculation was that a sink hole formed on the R555, residents will be relieved to know that it was just a water pipe burst.

The water pipe burst occurred in the early hours of August 30, what started out as a small hole grew to a gaping one with a diameter of at least 80cm. Mr Johan Swart, a local businessman measured the depth of the hole estimating it to be nearly a meter deep.

A hole formed seemingly overnight due to a water leak below the R555.

The hole had filled with water from a suspected water pipe burst, roughly 30cm away from the hole a dimple in the tar can be seen where the ground has begun to erode.

“We drove through it at about 5:00 this morning it wasn’t that big, when we came back later the morning we only realised then how big the hole had grown,” said Mr Swart.

The suspected pipe break comes from water mains running below the R555 feeding Witbank Brick Works.

He went on to say that at least three cars drove through the hole before it became too big, residents took it on themselves to regulate the traffic away from the hole before the Emalahleni Traffic Department arrived early that morning and navigated traffic away from the hole.

Municipal officials arrived shortly after and cordoned the area off. They contacted the Emalahleni Department of Waterworks to investigate the matter and prepared the area for work to be done.

At about 09:00 that morning the road was cordoned off completely as the repairs to the damaged road and to the burst pipe were underway. The water to the area was shut off and the road dug up, the piping was excavated and repairs were well underway going into the afternoon.

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