{"id":3519,"date":"2026-03-14T08:37:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=3519"},"modified":"2026-03-14T08:37:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:37:52","slug":"giant-underground-pipe-mysteriously-rises-over-30-feet-bursting-through-road-in-japan-i-cant-believe-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=3519","title":{"rendered":"Giant underground pipe mysteriously rises over 30 feet, bursting through road in Japan: “I can’t believe this”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A giant, underground pipe rose more than 32 feet out of a construction site in a busy area of the Japanese city of Osaka, nearly reaching an elevated road overnight, unseen by any witnesses.<\/p>\n

The steel pipe’s unexpected growth spurt was reported to police early Wednesday by a pedestrian who saw broken pieces of asphalt falling from the cylinder, baffling people passing by and causing traffic congestion.<\/p>\n

One office worker who passed by the site told NHK public television that he could not understand how it happened. Another man who works nearby said he first wondered if a new road support might have been built overnight.<\/p>\n

City officials said the pipe’s surge scattered concrete debris beneath the elevated road, but no injuries were reported, the Japan Times reported.<\/p>\n

The pipe, with a diameter of 11.5 feet, towered as high as 42 feet at one point, according to the Osaka construction department, forcing road closures.<\/p>\n

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\"Japan<\/span>

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This shows a pipe which was buried but suddenly emerged above ground at a sewer construction site in Osaka, western Japan Wednesday, March 11, 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Yukie Nishizawa\/Kyodo News via AP<\/p>\n

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“Cars will probably be blocked for a while,” a man who works nearby told the Kyodo news agency.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Ryozo Kawakita, a resident who lives nearby, told the Japan Times he was unable to take his vehicle out because of the road closures. <\/p>\n

“I can’t believe this,” he told the outlet.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

City officials said they plan to cut the last 5.2 feet of the pipe that remain visible, an operation that would cause a road closure for several more days.<\/p>\n

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\"Japan<\/span>

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This shows a pipe, center, which was buried but suddenly emerged above ground at a sewer construction site in Osaka, western Japan Wednesday, March 11, 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Yukie Nishizawa\/Kyodo News via AP<\/p>\n

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Sinkholes are a more common occurrence on streets in Japan. Last year, a massive sinkhole<\/span> swallowed a truck in a city outside Tokyo, trapping the driver<\/span> inside for more than 24 hours.<\/p>\n

In 2016, an\u00a0enormous sinkhole appeared<\/span>\u00a0on a five-lane street in Hakata, Japan. That sinkhole caused blackouts and traffic delays but crews worked around the clock to fix the gaping hole in the busy street.<\/p>\n

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