Japan Fixed a Massive Sinkhole in Just One Week

Just a week after a massive sinkhole opened up at a busy intersection in Fukuoka, Japan, the 5-lane stretch of road is back in use—as if nothing ever happened. Pedestrians are crossing at the crosswalks, and cars and bikes are back to sharing the street, as if the nearly 100-foot-wide and 50-foot-deep hole didn’t inhale the asphalt just days before. Traffic lights and other utility poles are up and running, as if they never went out in apocalyptic fashion last Tuesday.

A mesmerizing time lapse video shows city workers working day and night to restore the intersection, which local officials suspect collapsed from construction work on a subway line about 1,000 feet away. The hole not only disrupted a crowded business district, but left surrounding buildings without electricity or water. In just two days, though, workers filled the hole with sand and cement, according to the Guardian. (Fukuoka’s mayor has said that the filler makes the ground 30 times stronger than it was before.) By November 13, the underground pipelines and electricity cables were restored. And two days later, the section was paved, the lines redrawn, and ready to reopen.