São Paulo fills up crater formed by accident at subway worksite
Following an accident at the building site for São Paulo’s Subway Line 6 Orange, the central track of Marginal Tietê avenue—one of the city’s busiest expressways—may have its full traffic resumed Thursday (Jan. 3), city authorities confirmed.
“An on-site assessment has shown the success of the concreting work in the aperture formed after the accident next to the ventilation shaft of Subway Line 6 Orange and a collapse in the sewage pipe next to the works. Therefore, containment stakes will not be necessary,” a note from the state’s water utility reads.
The accident took place early on Tuesday (Feb. 1) and caused a crater to open on Marginal Tietê avenue, one of the main thoroughfares to federal highways linking the city to the coast and the other regions in the country.
The causes are still being uncovered, but the accident may have been caused by a pipe leak. No one was reported injured but some workers needed attention as they were in contact with contaminated water. The area was cordoned off and the traffic on Marginal Tietê was partly blocked.
To prevent a landslide, concessionaire Acciona filled the crater with rock and mortar. The operation was concluded last night (2). The opening is reported to have been filled with 4 thousand cubic meters of concrete—the equivalent of 650 cement mixers. Some 12 thousand cubic meters of rock were poured into ventilation shaft of Subway Line 6 Orange, not yet inaugurated. The volume corresponds to 1.2 thousand dump trucks.
São Paulo Mayor Ricardo Nunes confirmed that no stakes will be necessary for containment, which would delay the end of the road blockage. Traffic in the area has faced congestion. “Five bus lines go through the area, carrying approximately 40 thousand passengers every day,” he pointed out.
