City crews investigating 'massive' sinkhole in southeast Calgary

City crews areinvestigating after asinkhole formed in Calgary's Cranston neighbourhood on Tuesday afternoon.

Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer said he started getting messages at around 4 p.m. about the sinkhole, which is at a busy intersection in the community atCranston Boulevard S.E. and Cranston Drive S.E.

"I was very shocked at the size of it.Like the pictures [show]it's amassive sinkhole," Spencersaid.

"That's the biggest I've seen in in the city, for sure."

Spencer said that city services were notified and emergency crews responded.

"Apparently they treat this like they would an emergency, almost like a house fire, so they dispatched [the fire department] out to make sure that traffic was taken care of."

Road maintenance information on the City of Calgary's website saysasinkhole is caused whenthe soil beneath the road surface gets removed by water or other forces.

Sinkholes can happen because of water main breaks, intenserain and flooding, ground-water pumping or construction.

So far, there aren't details about what caused the sinkhole in Cranston orwhen the road will be repaired. City crews set up a fence around the sinkhole and a detour around it.