Large Sinkhole Opens Near Denver City, Texas

An excavator mounted drill rig drilling shafts as part of a project to pass utilities under I-35 near 51st Street toppled over while trying to move in soft, rain soaked soil. The Austin Fire Department was able to extract the operator from the cab and he was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, a minor miracle. I’m not sure what the purpose of the drilled shafts were for. Since the project was for some kind of utility pipe jacking under the freeway, I’m speculating it was drilling holes for temporary shoring for the jacking pit or something along those lines. I’m sure OSHA will be looking into the incident. Video news story after the break. (Photo from Austin KXAN.com).

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[Updated May 26, 2011] A new, cleaner, longer version of the video has surfaced on YouTube recently.  You can see it embedded below.  It includes some footage of attempts to "water bomb" the rock loose […]

This is some very interesting first-person video of a landslide near Elk City, Idaho, complete with expletives. 🙂 I can’t say I blame the videographer, it’s not every day you see a slope like that […]