A gigantic pipe protruded above ground in the center of Osaka City. What on earth is this enormous pipe, and why did it pop out?
Why? “Giant Pipe” 13m Above Ground A strange sight unfolded in the center of Osaka City. A mysterious cylinder protruded from the road. At one point, it was about 13 meters high. A person who saw the scene said, “I was shocked, so I came to see. I came yesterday too, but there was nothing there.” “It’s such a shock. Something like this is hiding underground.” What on earth happened…? A unique Osaka City story is emerging.
The report was made just before 7:00 AM on the 11th. A passerby reported, “Concrete is falling from a construction site.” The person who made the report said, “I heard a really strange thud, and wondered if it was an accident. I looked in to see what was going on, and the security guard said, ‘It’s dangerous, please do not enter.’ It wasn’t there yesterday. It was that iron pillar-like thing.”
The incident occurred on a national highway about 150 meters from Hankyu Umeda Station. Suddenly, a mysterious cylinder broke through the road and protruded. The protruding cylinder was about 3.6 meters in diameter, hitting the elevated road above. At least 13 meters protruded above ground. A witness to the scene said, “It’s incredible. I’ve worked with pipes before, but I’ve never seen such a big pipe, so it’s really scary.” Another witness said, “There was a huge traffic jam, so I wondered what had happened. I was shocked to see all the roads jammed.” Firefighters are injecting water into the protruding cylinder, which appears to be gradually sinking. This photo was taken by chance on the 5th of last month. It shows heavy machinery being used to carry out large-scale construction work.
Osaka City held a press conference on the afternoon of the 11th of this month. Kamiyama Masaki, section chief of the Construction Bureau’s Sewerage Department, said, “We are currently constructing a main sewer shaft. The circular steel retaining wall rose approximately 13 meters.”
“(Q: What caused this?) It’s not a common occurrence, so it’s currently unknown.” At the time, sewer pipe construction was underway at the site, and the mysterious cylinder was a “casing,” a vertical hole used to prevent sediment from building up around it. Professor Inazumi Shinya of the Shibaura Institute of Technology’s School of Engineering said, “Normally, you wouldn’t expect it to float up. Think of an empty plastic bottle. If you submerge a plastic bottle in water, it will easily rise to the surface once you let go. We believe this is roughly the same mechanism.”
There were also circumstances unique to Osaka City. Professor Inazumi Shinya of the Shibaura Institute of Technology’s School of Engineering said, “Osaka’s ground is soft, so it’s even easier for something like this to float up.” No one was injured, and the city is currently investigating the exact cause
