A giant sinkhole of 15 meters in diameter Tuesday breached the pavement of a main street in Merida’s Colonia García Ginerés.
The sinkhole on 28th Street by 29 and 31 Streets was discovered by neighborhood residents at 6:30 am, and shortly thereafter state police closed the street, so that personnel of the Public Works Directorate of the City of Mérida could begin emergency repairs.
The street was closed while Public Works personnel worked with heavy machinery to avoid inconvenience or injury to the population.
On the site, Alfonso Arjona Santana, deputy director of Land Roads, said that by doing a review at the site, apparently, the sinkhole that was initially 15 meters in diameter by two meters deep, would be a natural sascabera or a cave that It was filled in at the time to pave the street.
“The neighbors inform us that for the last 40 years the presence of the cave that reaches the Itzaes avenue has been detected. In fact, there was a collapse about 15 years ago but it was filled. Also, in an adjoining house, a wall fell a while ago,” he said.
“This is the first time that an incident of this kind has occurred in García Ginerés,” he said. About the work, he said that they will concentrate on reaching the firmest part of the hole, so the weakest part is being removed to later fill in and pave.
“Today we must finish with all the excavation and filling. Leave the material firm, leave until the base level. We are not going to open it to traffic until tomorrow, we will already pave it,” he explained.
For her part, Mariana Zapata, a vresident, commented that the most veteran inhabitants indicated that the site was full of caves, although she reiterated that an incident of this type had never been provoked.
“My grandmother said that García Ginerés was full of caves, in fact, you hit the ground and it sounded hollow, but it had never happened. Once I think it happened on Itzaes Avenue but until then it arrived and it surprises us a lot because here in the store it is a path of many people,” she said.
“There are also a lot of vehicles, but there have always been problems on this street,” she said.
As mentioned in the place, a neighbor who lives a few meters from the site of the incident heard a collapse at about five in the morning, although it was not until a few hours later when it was known that it was the sinkhole.
Motorists are still urged to use caution in the area.
TEXT: ACOM and MID-POINT newsroom
