Toronto sinkhole slows traffic at Woodbine and Steeles
A truck-sized sinkhole in the road at Woodbine and Steeles avenues caused traffic headaches in Markham Wednesday morning.
The large gash, blamed on a ruptured street watermain at Woodbine and John Street, is about 10 metres long, three metres wide and several metres deep.
Roads are down to a single lane each way north and south between John and Denison Street while crews scramble to fix it.
York Regional Police were called in to shut down part of the road and an excavator was brought to the site to help with repairs. The water has been shut off and crews are working to fill the hole and fix the plumbing.
Const. Blair McQuillan from York Regional Police said the repairs will not be a quick fix. Heavy machinery was working gingerly while digging around the area, which also has an underground gas line main nearby.
Motorists are being asked to avoid the area known as a high-traffic intersection during rush hour.
"Obviously something like this doesn't get repaired in a few hours, so at minimum the officer on the scene tells me [it will take] the remainder of the day," McQuillan said.
"The only thing that we would advise is that people avoid the area as much as possible. People are doing that currently, and it's alleviated a lot of the backups that would have been caused."
