Video of Car Swallowed by Sinkhole Related to Tunneling in Cairo, Egypt

GeoPrac.net sponsor Novo Tech Software recently released this video that gives an overview of their company and all of their various geotechnical software products.  Very impressive, check it out!

[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 […]

The City of Vancouver is suing a developer, excavation contractor and their consulting engineer for the costs of repairs, overtime for city employees and lost revenue from parking meters etc stemming from an apparent failure of a shoring system that formed a 30-meter sinkhole. No mention of the developer’s name or the engineer, but the contractor was Matcon Excavation and Shoring. The site will be the future home of high-rise condominiums…if the City lifts it’s stop work order.

The failure of the shoring caused a break inf a 20-cm water main ultimately flooding the site. It also necessitated the closure of the adjacent street. Of course this invites the whole chicken or the egg scenario. The defendants will probably argue that the water line failed first causing the failure of the shoring, but of course the City Engineer, Tom Timm was not shy about fingering the shoring as being deficient.

"It’s some kind of a failure of the shoring system . . . either a design issue or the way it was put in place."

[…]