Car falls into sinkhole

Traffic disrupted as crews seal up void

THE hole-y mess that swallowed one unlucky car on Sheridan St has been repaired.

Final touches on a new seal were applied by road workers yesterday.

Repair crews had laboured into Tuesday night to fix the sinkhole on the intersection of Sheridan St and Rutherford St at Cairns North.

A driver fell afoul of the gaping hole on Tuesday afternoon.

Subsequent road works played havoc with northbound traffic during peak hour.

Social media was aflame with bemused commuters.

“They are worried it will put a hole in the budget to fix it,” one quipped.

“It will hole-d up traffic for a few hours,” another dry-witted driver said.

A spokeswoman for Cairns Regional Council said the sinkhole opened after earlier roadworks to repair a burst water main on Saturday morning.

“The area around the water main was excavated … the hole backfilled and compacted,” she said..

“It appears that the compaction was not completely effective and a new void opened up under the road seal.

“Council is assisting the driver of the vehicle that was damaged in the road collapse.”

In February, a woman drove nose first into a sinkhole on Christie Drive at Brinsmead.

Wet weather caused the sinkhole to collapse a temporary access road.

The heavy rains of 150mm around Redlynch caused the damage at a worksite.

“A temporary access road had been created to divert traffic around the worksite,” the council spokeswoman said at the time.

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