In a busy area of Osaka, Japan, a massive cylindrical underground steel pipe suddenly emerged from the ground overnight, reaching more than ten meters high, nearly touching an elevated road. The cause of this accident remains unknown, and authorities are still conducting investigations.
According to reports from the Associated Press, on the morning of March 11th, a passerby alerted the police about the unexpected appearance of the steel pipe. The passerby witnessed chunks of asphalt falling from the pipe, causing confusion among passersby and leading to traffic congestion.
A commuter passing by told NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation, that he couldn’t comprehend how this had occurred. Another man working nearby initially thought it was a construction unit building a new road support overnight.
The Osaka City Construction Department stated that the highest point where the 3.5-meter-diameter underground steel pipe emerged from the ground was at a distance of 13 meters above the ground.
The location where the steel pipe emerged is a sewage treatment construction site. Workers were connecting an existing sewage pipe with a channel for storing excess rainwater to prevent flooding.
City officials mentioned that the steel pipe was being used as a retaining structure to prevent soil collapse during the operations. They also indicated that workers had drained the water from the pipe recently, which might have caused it to float.
Firefighters drilled a hole on the side of the steel pipe and filled it with water to push it back underground. By March 12th, it had descended to a height of just one or two meters above the ground.
Officials revealed their plans to cut off the remaining 1.6 meters of the steel pipe exposed above ground, a process that will necessitate the closure of the road for a few days.
According to Agence France-Presse, a municipal official disclosed that two roads leading to the city center near the construction site have been closed since March 11th, causing traffic jams. However, one of the roads reopened on the afternoon of March 13th, and the other road is expected to reopen “soon.”
He added, “We are still investigating the cause of the accident.”
Prior reports from Daiji World mentioned that Osaka received a donation of 21 kilograms of gold bars from an anonymous donor last month, designated for repairing the city’s aging water supply pipes. The value of these gold bars amounted to a surprising 560 million yen (approximately 3.6 million dollars).
Osaka Mayor Hidesuke Yokoyama expressed during a press conference held on February 19th, “The amount is enormous, beyond words. Solving the aging water pipe issue requires significant investment. I can only express gratitude.”
With a population of 2.8 million, Osaka is Japan’s third-largest city and the capital of the western region. Due to its early urban development compared to other cities, Osaka’s infrastructure is showing signs of aging.
Last year, Osaka experienced an incident where a damaged sewer caused a road collapse, resulting in a truck being swallowed, and the driver tragically lost his life.