Now that's a hole!

Due to the rains in Quito, a huge sink-hole opened up at the Trebol. The Trebol is a major traffic interchange in south of Quito.

Incredibly, no one was hurt. Apparently a couple of policemen heard some rumbling so they blocked traffic and moved people away from the area. The hole measures about 40m across and is about 60m deep.

A river runs underneath this area through a viaduct, but it appears that with so much rain lately that part of the viaduct was weakened enough to cause this huge hole.

The civil engineers are saying it could take upto one year to complete repairs and have traffic moving normally through the area again.

Hermann Schirmacher took the photo at left which shows some of the work being done to repair the tunnel under the Trebol.