The pipe, with a diameter of 11.5 feet, towered as high as 42 feet at one point, according to the Osaka construction department.
  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    3·
    2 months ago

    My engineer brain is breaking trying to understand how this could happen.

    Also, how the fuck does this work:

    By Thursday it had been lowered back to just several feet above the ground after firefighters cut a hole on the side and injected water to push it back into the ground.

    They did what now?

    • IggyTheSmidge@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      From the article:

      The pipe’s unexpected elevation from the ground occurred at a sewer construction site where workers had been connecting an existing sewer line with a channel designed to hold excess rainwater to prevent flooding.

      The pipe was being used as a retaining structure to keep the surrounding soil from collapsing during the operation, officials said. A short time earlier, workers had drained water from the pipe, which may have caused the empty apparatus to float, they said.