A roughly five metre square sinkhole at the surface has opened up along Westwood Rd., with crews on site to fill it in with concrete on Friday, Oct. 3. (submitted photo)

By Alex Rawnsley

old mine void

Repair work underway to fill sinkhole along Westwood Rd. in Nanaimo

Oct 3, 2025 | 9:10 AM

NANAIMO — A sizeable sinkhole has broken through the surface along Westwood Rd.

The situation was first noticed around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 2, between Cathers Dr. and Kawartha Pl., affecting the road surface and sidewalk areas on the western side of the road.

City general manager of engineering and public works Bill Sims told NanaimoNewsNOW the hole stems from an old mine void and is across the street from a similar sinkhole which appeared 25 years ago.

“We call it weathering and the roof of the mine, or the void just starts to settle down and eventually that radiates up to the surface and that’s what we’ve seen here.”

An open mine void collapsed Thursday night along Westwood Rd. (submitted photo/Kelsey Bergen)

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The city has closed Westwood Rd. between the two intersections, to all vehicle and pedestrian traffic, with a detour established around the incident site.

No homes are affected and no evacuation orders are in place due to the sinkhole.

Crews will be on site through much of Friday, Oct. 3, pouring concrete into the hole, measuring approximately five metres deep and around five metres square on the surface.

Sims said they won’t be conducting any extensive survey or investigation work into the void, like in past incidents along Commercial St., as they have reliable mapping and intel already from the area.

When asked how long the repair operation would take, Sims said, “how long is a piece of string?”

“It’s how big the hole is that we can’t see, so concrete may flow into the underground, which could gobble up a few loads of concrete, before we start to get backing up into the hole.”

He anticipated they would be done fairly quickly, with work hopefully wrapping by Saturday at the latest.

(submitted photo/Kelsey Bergen)

Sims said they’ve taken some precautions with utility lines along Westwood Rd., and have utility staff on site monitoring the situation.

He added existing mapping and a quick reaction is the best path forward for dealing with mine void issues, as any proactive program to fill the holes would be extremely time-consuming and costly.

“It would take years, and it would cost millions, and maybe not the best use of resources. We have a fairly educated guess in the form of the mapping and some of the old records, and generally experience as well to know where the deep ones are…and we know where the shallow ones are which we put as a higher priority.”

Deeper holes are typically more supported by rock, and therefore more stable.

Mine voids have cropped up several times over recent years, including along Victoria Rd. in January 2024, with repairs taking several months.

A small sinkhole on the edge of a former coal mine also emerged in February 2025 along Emerald Woods Pl., near the Nanaimo Parkway and Mostar Rd. intersection.

Traffic remains closed along Westwood Rd. between Cathers Dr. and Kawartha Pl. (submitted photo)

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