A Hole Lot Of Grief

A sinkhole that threatened to swallow part of a building in North Yorkshire put management in a spin and HBPW’s Managing Partner, Paul Withers, on course for an emergency visit to God’s own county!

Paul said: “Like so many parts of the country, areas of Yorkshire have over the years, had their fair share of sinkholes which appear, invariably with little warning, compromising properties and, potentially, vehicles travelling across affected highways.

“There was an incident recently in which a sinkhole mysteriously appeared on the hard standings outside a commercial building in the Knaresborough/ Ripon area, prompting fears that the structure, some 20-30m from the hole, might be compromised.”

Paul made an emergency visit to examine the 5m wide crater which was some three to four metres deep, observing that the building close to the sinkhole, although not in imminent danger, was in fact, lower than the River Nidd at that point.

“The Nidd was running in between two flood banks with flood protector walls at the top of each, meaning that the only way for the building to get rid of its excess rainwater was to literally pump it ‘up’ to the river.”

However, it transpired that the two pumps charged with carrying out this job – the main one and a secondary back up pump – had both ceased working so water was dissipating into the ground and washing away chalk which had dissolved, creating the new sinkhole.

“It did remind me of that track on The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album called ‘Fixing a Hole’, only we couldn’t really fix it because the best advice I was able to give at this stage, was to ‘monitor for a few months.’

“If there is no change – the pumps are now working properly – then ‘filling in’ will be the best remedy, however, if there is a change for the worse, then a more invasive solution will have to be considered. For now, fingers crossed!”