'Sinkhole' appears near London Bridge Station
Mystery surrounds a 'sinkhole' that appeared more than a week ago alongside a construction site just yards from London Bridge Station.
A hole has opened up in the road surface of Fenning Street, a short thoroughfare just off St Thomas Street immediately south of London Bridge Station.
The hole adjoins the construction site for a new 28-storey office block called EDGE London Bridge.
Local organisation BermondseyStreet.London published the first report on the mysterious hole on Wednesday 15 January, claiming that the void is "estimated 10m (4 storeys) deep".
The SE1 website approached both Southwark Council and EDGE for comment. No reply was received from the developer.
When SE1's reporter visited the site on Sunday, it had been screened off from obvious public view with fencing panels.
According to an update provided by the council to local residents earlier this week, the sinkhole appeared on 6 January:
The exact cause of the sink hole remains under investigation. Mace completed the construction of basement over a year ago. Until 5 January, the basement was dry.
The hole appeared after material and ground water entered their basement at basement levels 3 and 4.
The construction of the basement at the level 4 created a ‘pocket’ in the clay, which was breached most likely by the ground water.
Material from under the carriageway entered the fourth basement level of the construction site. This created a void beneath the roadway which then collapsed into the hole.
The volume of material in the basement is equivalent to the material lost from the highway.
Mace are presently, sealing the basement, which when completed, will allow them to reinstate the highway.
In addition to the damage to the roadway the collapse damaged electrical supply cables to the construction site and a water main. The electrical cables have been isolated and rerouted. The water main was found to be redundant and has been disconnected.
Before remedial work could be commenced additional ground surveys were completed to ensure there are no more voids or contributory factors. The sewer network has also been checked and found to be operating correctly.
The council engineering services are in close liaison with the team from Mace and have approved their method statements for the repairs.
The work is likely to take a number of weeks to complete. To monitor progress there is a weekly meeting between the site operators, the utilities companies and council representatives.
Work at the construction site continues with the hole being continually monitored 7 days a week.
