--- title: 40-Foot Sinkhole Surprises Manchester Drivers description: Commuters in Manchester faced an unusual obstacle on their way home canonical: https://time.com/3998716/sinkhole-manchester-hole/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-14T19:17:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:27.786Z og:title: Gigantic Sinkhole Opens Up in British City og:description: Commuters in Manchester faced an unusual obstacle on their way home og:url: https://time.com/3998716/sinkhole-manchester-hole/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71057bcd06d6301e/69885f658e06017293461e26/manchester-sinkhole-8-14.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5350 og:image:height: 3009 og:image:alt: Heavy Rain Sweeps Britain For A Second Day, og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Gigantic Sinkhole Opens Up in British City twitter:description: Commuters in Manchester faced an unusual obstacle on their way home twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71057bcd06d6301e/69885f658e06017293461e26/manchester-sinkhole-8-14.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Gigantic Sinkhole Opens Up in British City > Sponsored content. 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Christopher Furlong — Getty Images  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Aug 14, 2015 7:17 PM UTC Drivers in one of Britain’s largest cities encountered an extra-special commuting headache today when a busy city road in Manchester gave way, creating a [massive sinkhole](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11804091/Giant-sinkhole-opens-in-city-centre.html). The hole appeared around midday, as pavement crumbled and left a pit about 40 feet deep and 15 feet wide, the _Telegraph_ reports. The sinkhole follows heavy rainfall in the region, and is believed to be the result of a culvert, or a tunnel holding a stream or drain, eroding beneath the road. Manchester City Council said in a statement that utilities officers were assessing the situation Friday, and that the road may remain closed over the weekend. At least anyone who arrived late to work was equipped with an intriguing excuse. \[[_Telegraph_](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11804091/Giant-sinkhole-opens-in-city-centre.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3998716/sinkhole-manchester-hole/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3998716/sinkhole-manchester-hole/"},"headline":"Gigantic Sinkhole Opens Up in British City","datePublished":"2015-08-14T19:17:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:27.786Z","description":"Commuters in Manchester faced an unusual obstacle on their way home","url":"https://time.com/3998716/sinkhole-manchester-hole/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Bizarre","manchester"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71057bcd06d6301e/69885f658e06017293461e26/manchester-sinkhole-8-14.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71057bcd06d6301e/69885f658e06017293461e26/manchester-sinkhole-8-14.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Heavy Rain Sweeps Britain For A Second Day,","caption":"Manchester Sinkhole Appears as Heavy Rain Sweeps Britain","creditText":"Christopher Furlong — Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3998716/sinkhole-manchester-hole/","name":"Gigantic Sinkhole Opens Up in British City"}}]}] ```