PICTOU, N.S. Heavy rain and melting snow caused a major washout at the corner of Denoon and Wellington streets in Pictou.
While traffic flow on Denoon wasn’t seriously affected, the damage was so large that Pictou Fire Department was initially called to it as a suspected sinkhole. A portion of Wellington, south of Denoon Street, was blocked off, allowing only local traffic to get in and out of the affected area. Public works were also being cautious to ensure that pedestrian traffic was out of harm’s way.
The washout, ended up stretching about 100 feet down Wellington, and went underneath three cars, said Pictou Fire Department chief Paul Janes. One car slipped partly into the washed-out area, but was not damaged, he said. Most of the small trench had been covered over by late Monday morning.
Alf Rondelet, Sr. is usually up around 4:30 a.m. every morning to run his taxi stand at the corner of Denoon and Wellington street in Pictou.
He had a first-hand look as the public works trucks started rolling in around 6 a.m. on Monday, after the department had been advised of a large hole that opened up directly across the street from the taxi stand.
“These guys out here are marvellous, man,” he said, as public works employees were in the midst of repairing the problem on the afternoon of Jan. 21.
“As soon as they got the call, the boys were up here. The town engineer, he showed up first, and then they all were there and the next thing I knew they had everything going on. Front-end loaders, trucks, tow trucks, the whole nine yards. Even the fire department chief showed up when he got the call.”
“This is the second time a hole has been there, by the way,” Rondelet said, adding that the first occurrence was about two weeks ago. He suspects the holes might have something to do with some underground work that had been carried out recently near the corner of Faulkland and Wellington streets, a block north of Denoon.
“In all the years I’ve been here, we’ve never really had this problem before.”
