Nottinghamshire County Council said it is investigating after three sinkholes opened up across the county's roads in the space of a month. The authority said it had instructed its teams to look into "identifiable factors" after the cavities formed in Worksop, Newark and Cotgrave.
The sinkhole in Carlton Road, Worksop trapped a car when it opened up on May 6. It was confirmed to have been caused by a collapsed sewer pipe, with Severn Trent Water apologising for the issues it caused.
Damage to the water company's network also led to a sinkhole opening at the junction of Main Road and Plumtree Road in Cotgrave on Sunday, May 14. Both sinkholes came just weeks after one formed in Queen's Road, Newark.
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Officials at the county council said they did not believe there were any "clear common contributory elements" to the three sinkholes, but said an investigation had been launched. “We have experienced two collapses of the carriageway in Nottinghamshire over the past two weeks, both caused by damage on Severn Trent Water’s network," said a highways manager.
“Sink holes and carriageway damage can occur for a number of different reasons, as illustrated by recent incidents. Whilst we don’t believe there to have been any clear common contributory elements, we have asked our teams to investigate whether there are any identifiable factors.”
Andrew Farrant, a geologist at the British Geological Survey, ruled out the possibility of the sinkholes being caused naturally, saying they were more likely to be related to "aging infrastructure or lack of maintenance". He said: “The sinkholes in Nottingham are unlikely to be natural features caused by dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone.
"They are more likely to be due to collapses of underground infrastructure - sewers, pipes, drains, shafts etc. Consequently, these failures have little to do with the underlying geology, and are probably more related to aging infrastructure or lack of maintenance.
"The sudden spate of them may just be chance, although some of the recent heavy rainstorms may have contributed to some of the collapses, especially where we have combined storm sewers which also take road runoff. We’re not aware of a sudden increase in sinkholes nationally, although periods of wet weather and heavy rain can trigger collapses.”
Addressing the Cotgrave sinkhole, a Severn Trent spokesperson said: “We’re sorry for the disruption caused by a burst water pipe on the junction of Main Road and Plumtree Road in Cotgrave. Water supplies aren’t affected, but to keep everyone safe as we work, we have closed a section of the road, and we apologise for the inconvenience that will cause.
"It will be our priority to have the pipe fixed, and road put back to normal and open again as quickly as we can.”
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