this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

My engineer brain is breaking trying to understand how this could happen.

Also, how the fuck does this work:

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.

They did what now?

From the article:

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.

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.

[–] Amuletta@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago

Why is it pixelated? We're all adults here.

[–] FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] 3rdXthecharm@lemmy.ml 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Just..because I need to know.

Are you Cuno? Or do you hate Cuno?

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 5 points 19 hours ago
[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Nintendo really pulling all the stops to advertise the new Mario movie

[–] carrylex@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Are you sure that the entire city didn't sink?

[–] Morphite88@thelemmy.club 30 points 1 day ago
[–] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tl;dr: Its a pile or something similar to stabilise the ground, they pumped the water out of it and it lifted up out of the ground.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's not a pipe at all. Crap article.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sounds like the pipe was used to great an underground work space for the connection the workers were doing below. The steel walls kept the giant hole’s dirt from falling in.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca -1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

It was a support jack. It's not a pipe, nothing gets piped in it.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Pipe just means tube, not that you have to use it as a fluid vehicle. There is structural Pipe. And they said they pumped the water out of it, which then let it float up on a presumes rising water table below, meaning it was hollow inside.

From JapanTimea article:

The pipe was being used as a retaining structure to prevent excavated soil from collapsing. Workers had been pumping groundwater out of the pipe until early Wednesday morning, but no abnormalities had been detected before the incident.

Support pipe use, like when you dig a hole and shore it up on the sides. Rathen than a pile driven in to stop layered geology from aliding off a slope. The articles mentioned they were using it to get to the bottom and do their connection work...not connect too this pipe, but it can still be called a pipe by definition of what piping is.

[–] Zier@fedia.io 10 points 1 day ago

That deadbolt keeps Godzilla in his underground cell. RUN!!!

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

duh nuh duh nuh duh nuh

in a lower voice

duh nuh duh nuh duh nuh

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

The mole people reject our infrastructure

[–] Jimbabwe@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I think I saw a porno about this

[–] CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Ah, it's just a matter of time before people will start being blasted into plumes of dust.