Sinkhole forces Beltline condo residents from home

Residents of a southwest condominium building are still waiting to return home as the city awaits results of an engineering report on a sinkhole that developed in the complex's parking lot.

The fire department and police evacuated the three-storey building at 313 13th Ave. S.W. on Friday evening because the hole was adjacent to a structural support. Thirteen residents from the eight suites are not allowed to return until engineers decide that the complex is safe.

The problem was discovered when the front wheel of a pickup truck that was parked in the underground parkade wentinto the sinkhole which city officials said measures four metres wide and three metres deep.

Firefighters removed the truck from the parkade and could see a "visible connection" to the Centuria on the Park condo construction site onthe east side of theevacuated building. Lake Placid Developments, which is developing Centuria on the Park, is not commenting until the city's engineering report is completed.

Area residents said a sinkhole a cavity in the earth that can be caused through erosion developed in the same parking lot last summer.

"Ifeel terrible for them.I mean, within a 10-month span it's happened twice now. Luckily, the development companywas good enough to put them up in hotels is what I've heard but I'm sure they're a little bit ticked off that this keeps happening," said Shawna Bennett, who lives in an apartment next to the evacuated condo building, on Monday.

"It's just a bit unnerving. You're wondering next time they start construction, once they get the big machinery up there, if it's going to cause some more damage to the foundation or not."

This is the second time in a week that a large sinkhole has developed in the Beltline. Fourth Street between 10th and 11th avenues has been closed since April 24 when a sinkhole was discovered adjacent to a construction site that was abandoned by its original developer in August. The city has ordered that site'snew owners, Pointe of View Developers, to remove the sidewalk and scaffolding to pinpoint the cause of the sinkhole.