Despite a sinkhole the size of a small car in their neighbourhood, there wasn’t much sinking feeling from Cranston residents on Tuesday evening.
The sinkhole, which consumed most of the right hand lane going westbound on Cranston Drive SE and Cranston Boulevard SE, opened in the mid afternoon and continued to grow into the early evening.
Ward 12 Councillor Evan Spencer provided an update to residents during the evening, saying that City of Calgary crews were on site addressing the hole.
“The City will have trouble shift employees controlling access to the site,” he wrote.
Detours around the affected area were set up by the City of Calgary, and inspection crews from various city departments were examining the hole by 5 p.m.
The sight of the sinkhole proved to be a draw for residents, with some having treated the occasion more like a block party than a cause for concern.
Cranston locals Aaron and Nicole Olsen used the occasion as an excuse to chat with their fellow neighbours, and to go for a walk.
“He came home from work and he had to get by and he was like, ‘hey, there’s a sinkhole’ and I was like, ‘well, let’s go grab our drinks and walk down and see what it looks like,'” said Nicole Olsen.
“First and foremost, nobody got hurt that we know of, and it’s just the most excitement that’s happened in Cranston in a very long time.”
The Olsens said that potholes in the community were unusual, and that there was no prior indication that a sinkhole was forming on the roadway.
According to the City of Calgary’s pothole website, the last reported pothole on Cranston Drive SE near the location of the sinkhole was reported on February 15, 2023.
The City of Calgary said that the sinkhole had been caused by a broken drain in the park area adjacent to the roadway.
They said that the work being undertaken is high priority and that city crews would be working extended hours to fix the sinkhole, but that an estimate on how long that fix would take could not be provided. Repair time, they said, would be affected by a variety of factors including excavation, the size of the break, and weather.
Photos of the Cranston sinkhole
