HONG KONG: BUILDINGS EVACUATED AFTER LARGE HOLE APPEARS IN A HONG KONG ROAD - sound but no commentary

Decade: 1980

An estimated 150 people were evacuated from their homes in the Hong Kong suburb of Wanchai on January 1 after part of a road suddenly collapsed. The 20 metre (65 feet) deep hole appeared in Hennessy Road in the early hours of New Years Day. Residents of the adjacent Soldiers' and Sailors' Home and a neighbouring 15-storey commercial and residential building had to leave the area until the foundations were checked for safety and found to be secure. More than 100 workers were deployed at the site later in the morning to help fill-in the hole which measured 10 metres (32 feet) across. More than 100 dump trucks were used to ferry sand and stone to the scene, and by five in the... Read more An estimated 150 people were evacuated from their homes in the Hong Kong suburb of Wanchai on January 1 after part of a road suddenly collapsed. The 20 metre (65 feet) deep hole appeared in Hennessy Road in the early hours of New Years Day. Residents of the adjacent Soldiers' and Sailors' Home and a neighbouring 15-storey commercial and residential building had to leave the area until the foundations were checked for safety and found to be secure. More than 100 workers were deployed at the site later in the morning to help fill-in the hole which measured 10 metres (32 feet) across. More than 100 dump trucks were used to ferry sand and stone to the scene, and by five in the evening the hole had been covered and compacted. Soon after this, building ordinance inspectors declared safe the 50-year-old Soldiers' and Sailors' Home as well as the adjacent units and people were allowed to return to their homes. The Hong Kong government and the Mass Transit Railway Corporation have admitted the subsidence could be the result of tunnelling work which is being carried out in the area for the colony's underground railway system. A full investigation into the incident is to be held. The collapse caused major traffic jams in the vicinity, and Hennessy Road residents have held a meeting which called on the Mass Transit Railway Corporation to cease tunnelling in the Wanchai area.