AN ALBURY laneway was still closed last night after a sinkhole the size of an “old-fashioned garbage bin lid” was spotted there early yesterday.
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Delivery truck driver Mick Humphrey saw it while driving in Gehrig Lane, which runs from Macauley to Young streets — between Swift and Wilson streets.
“I thought with all the recent rain it may have been a pot hole,” he said.
“But as I got closer, I could see right down into it from my vantage point in the truck.”
When he closer inspected the hole he found: “If I had put my leg down there, it would have disappeared up to my hip”.
“The width, I would say, was the size of an old-fashioned garbage bin lid.”
It was the city’s second sudden sinkhole find within a year.
About 10 months ago, a Springdale Heights man fell 1½ metres into a narrow sinkhole in his backyard.
Mr Humphrey had an idea of how the sinkhole was created.
“I imagine some old infrastructure has collapsed, collecting the soil around it under the road,” he said.
The lane was blocked to traffic for the day after Mr Humphrey contacted Albury Council.
“It could have been serious if a car or motorbike drove down the lane,” he said.
“The lane behind Oke’s Toy Warehouse is a thoroughfare for high traffic because of all the delivery trucks.
“I would imagine a car would sink to its axle and it would be stuck.”
The Border Mail contacted the council early yesterday afternoon but communications group leader Melinda Grigg was unable to provide information, saying “crews have gone for the day and we can’t get any details”.