Shock for driver as sinkholes open up in Shrewsbury street - with pictures
A driver had a shock when the road surface crumbled away beneath her front wheel as she pulled up in a Shrewsbury street today.
Small sinkholes have appeared in Mount Street today, with police and Severn Trent Water cordoning off the section of road to other motorists.
The area affected is just down from where work to replace ageing water pipes is taking place.
Maureen Kaye, 71, said she had just returned to her son's house from taking her daughter-in-law and granddaughter to the station and was pulling up.
She said: "All of a sudden the wheel wouldn't move and I got out and saw it had sunk into this hole.
"It wasn't there before I drove over it. I didn't realise that was dangerous as there was nothing there to indicate I shouldn't.
"It's collapsing in different places now so I think they will have to close the road."
She said the AA had been called to remove the car, and if specialist equipment was needed Severn Trent had offered to foot the bill.
Bezlei Kowalski tweeted:
The Star's Tom Morton posted:
Mrs Kaye's son Paul Kaye, 49, a teacher at Shrewsbury School, said it was most likely the result of a pipe burst just the week before, the latest in a long line.
He said: "Over the past couple of years there has been leak after leak, if you look up the road there are patch-ups everywhere.
"This burst flooded my cellar and my neighbour's cellar, just last week."
He said the Severn Trent works along the road were to do with the same problem, replacing aging pipes, but had come too late to stop the latest leak - or the sink hole.
"Because of the leaks it has undermined the structure of the road.
"My view is that they need to completely re-do this road, another patch up won't do. The other big worry is subsidence of the buildings," he said.
