Metro Flood Caused by Colossal Drilling Error?
One of the mysterious cloud-shaped holes found in concrete pipe casings.
Investigators have found mysterious holes in the Helsinki metro's water pipe casings that could point to a colossal and almost incomprehensible human error. The strangely-shaped holes allowed water from broken pipes to pour into the central railway metro stop, causing millions in damages and shutting down the stop for months.
The holes look like "revision clouds", which are markings that architects make on blueprints to indicate where some design has been changed. If this is the case, it means that someone mistook the symbol for actual instructions to drill cloud-shaped holes in the pipe casings.
Architect Aki Davidsson, of the firm Davidsson & Tarkela, feels the notion of such an idiotic mistake is unrealistic.
"I don't believe it. It sounds very farfetched. We'd have to find the person who did it and the drawings. I've never heard of such a lack of professionalism in Finland. I've heard it happening in other countries," says Davidsson.
But investigators feel they can't rule the possibility out. After all, the holes are quite distinct, and the resemblance to revision clouds is unmistakable.
Sami Sillsten, production engineer for Helsinki Water, says the mistake might be possible, in which case it bears following up. At this point, he says, it's worth following up every lead.
YLE