Blair Road reopens after city repairs large hole

A stretch of Blair Road near the Pine View Golf Course reopened Sunday after a large hole formed the day before in the side of the east Ottawa thoroughfare.

A temporary fix has allowed the road to reopen, said Alain Gonthier, the City of Ottawa's director of infrastructure services.

Gonthier told CBC News on Saturday that a broken watermain underneath a culvert had caused significant erosion, which led to the collapse.

The watermain, whch was first installed in the 1970s, still has to be replaced, Gonthier said in an update Sunday.

That work will likely happen next weekend, Gonthier said, requiring Blair Road to be closed once more so that the culvert can be removed and the new watermain installed.

Police closed Blair Road between Innes and Meadowbrook roads after the hole formed late Saturday morning.

Tim Tierney, the councillor for the area, told Radio-Canada that the hole was "caught very quickly" and crews quickly showed up on the scene to deal with the collapse.

"Of course, there's always concern anytime a roadway could be impacted. But this was caught well in advance," Tierney said. "There was no danger."

Valerie Aji said she was in her kitchen when she saw the road collapse.

"Pieces and big chunks of the road were just falling into the hole," Aji said.

"You could feel it. You could hear it even in my house. You could hear the dropping and the water splashing up."

She said she could see drivers making their way along Blair Road, not knowing that just off to the side was a hole large enough to swallow a car.