Car finally removed from Ottawa sinkhole

The car that plunged into a sinkhole on Highway 174 Tuesday was finally pulled out Friday night, as city crews worked into the evening to repair the collapse of a storm drain pipe that caused the fissure.

The owner of the car, Juan Pedro Unger, said Friday evening he was glad to hearthe vehiclehad been retrieved.

He said when reached by phone that he has slept little since the incident.

Unger was driving home in the eastbound lanes when he saw a black patch in his lane near the Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard exit.

His car fell into the hole, and he hadto crawl his way out, where witnesses helped him.

The sinkhole was caused when a storm drain pipe collapsed and water eroded the ground underneath the road. The highway has been closed since and is not expected to open until the week after next at the earliest.

On Friday, Coun. Stephen Blais said repairs to the storm sewer were delayed in part because conservationists wanted to protect local fish populations.

Blais had asked staff from Ottawa's engineering department for a detailed timeline of everything that's happened since that section of storm sewer was inspected last summer, when engineers first noticed the pipe had deteriorated and needed repair.

While planning started in August and the design was completed in December, the city ran into a roadblock withthe Rideau Valley Conservation Authority when it applied for a permit to fix the sewer.

The conservation authority told the city no work could be done from March 15 until July 1, to protect "local fish populations during spawning."

Blais said that slowed the project down considerably.

City spokesman says spawning never delayed work

But city spokesman Michael FitzPatrick said the sewer pipe work could not have been completed any sooner. He said the city has always been aware of the fish spawning area, but did not delay its repair plans because of it.

The contractor, Louis Bray, didn't start moving equipment in until late August, and workers began cleaning out the pipe Tuesday morning. It collapsed later that same day.

Ontario's infrastructure minister Bob Chiarelli said the sinkhole should be a "wake-up call" to the city to deal with its infrastructure issues.

Chiarelli said the province has handed the city $330 million over the last three years to pay for infrastructure repairs and said it's up to the city to decide how to spend that money.