Osaka city officials say they have reopened an elevated roadway in a busy central area, where a nearby giant underground drainage pipe had pushed 13 meters above ground level.
The iron pipe was found sticking out of the ground on a road beneath the elevated Shin-Midosuji highway on Wednesday. Workers reportedly had earlier removed water from the pipe. The pipe measures 3.5 meters in diameter and about 30 meters in length. No injuries were reported.
To ensure safety, Osaka city officials performed work to solidify the ground where pile foundations of the elevated highway’s piers had been driven, after partially closing the elevated highway and its frontage road. They say the work was completed by early Friday morning.
The area also has pile foundations that support the piers of a nearby railway line. Officials said their monitoring shows that the piers’ inclination and subsidence remain within set standards.
City officials decided to lift the closure of the elevated Shin-Midosuji highway shortly after 3 p.m. on Friday.
But no additional measures have been taken for the giant pipe. On the previous day, workers injected water into the pipe to push it back underground as a stopgap measure.
The officials say they have yet to identify the cause as they had been putting priority on returning the flow of traffic to normal in the area.
AloJapan.com