A sinkhole roughly 8–10 m wide and several metres deep has opened on the AJ Burkitt Reserve sporting oval in Heidelberg, directly adjacent to the North East Link tunnel alignment in Melbourne’s northeast. Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority has confirmed the “surface hole” is in the vicinity of active tunnelling operations, leading to a work pause while engineers and emergency crews carry out geotechnical investigations and monitoring. No injuries or structural damage have been reported, but the area remains fully cordoned off pending cause determination and stability assessment.

Temporary platform collapse on a Roots Contractors Limited site left drilling operative Steve Zschoch with a fractured neck after he was “folded up like a concertina” beneath the failed structure while working for subcontractor Diacutt Limited. Both firms have now been fined for safety failings relating to the design, installation and verification of the temporary working platform, which was being used for drilling operations. The case reinforces the need for formal temporary works design checks, competent supervision and load-path verification for access platforms on small civil and infrastructure projects.

Esso has been fined £1M by the UK Health and Safety Executive after 2.4t of highly flammable liquefied petroleum gas leaked from ageing plant at ExxonMobil’s Fawley Refinery due to failures in managing equipment integrity. The incident, which exposed workers to “life-threatening risks”, stemmed from inadequate inspection and maintenance of pipework and associated fittings in a hazardous area of the site. Process safety engineers and asset managers are likely to face closer scrutiny of inspection regimes, corrosion monitoring, and lifecycle replacement strategies for high-pressure LPG systems.