City blames weather for creating new sinkhole on Sturgeon Creek path

After a massive water-filled hole on a Sturgeon Creek active-transportation pathway took more than a year to fix, a new sinkhole has opened nearby.

In June 2023, the Free Press reported on a gaping depression stretching seven metres long, three metres wide and up to a metre deep that opened on a pathway leading to a playground on Amarynth Crescent near the Sturgeon Creek active-transportation route. The city finally made repairs in October 2024.

Now, about 12 metres away from that spot, a new crater has appeared. The hole, about three metres long and 2.5 metres wide, has been blocked off using metal rods and plastic netting, but resident Philip Kaban said the opening is getting larger.

“This big hole in the middle is getting bigger and bigger,” Kaban said Thursday.

“Water (and) the soil does fall in, and slowly, the hole gets bigger by the asphalt path that people use.”

Kaban lives nearby, and said he tries to watch for young children or wildlife to pass by because the netting is flimsy.

“I see little kids walk down the path by themselves, and that’s very dangerous,” he said.

Area councillor Shawn Dobson visited the sinkhole Thursday and said the busy path has had issues with deep groundwater eroding the area for several years.

“(The city) fixed the original sinkhole, and it’s moved to the south and to the west,” Dobson (St. James) said. “So they almost got it fixed, but not quite.”

In 2023, Dobson put up a barricade while waiting for the city to make repairs. He said the fact that the new hole has been completely blocked off gives him hope the city will make the repair faster this time.

“They’re just going to have to do it again, I guess,” he said.

The new sinkhole was caused by intense rainstorms earlier in the summer that created a new area of erosion, city spokeswoman Julie Dooley said.

“We are continuing work to determine best next steps towards a long-term solution,” she said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca