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Commuters should be prepared for a lengthy disruption from the enormous sinkhole that spans the width of Rideau Street and swallowed a van whole Wednesday morning.

At a press briefing in the afternoon, Mayor Jim Watson and other experts from the city said it was too soon to say how long Rideau Street will stay closed or if the collapse has damaged the surrounding buildings.

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“We just don’t know how long it’s going to take,” Watson said. “This is a significant sinkhole in the downtown core.”

The sinkhole forced the evacuation of the Rideau Centre, the Westin Hotel and other nearby buildings and also halted construction on the nearby Confederation LRT line.

The collapse occurred at about 10:40 a.m. on Rideau, just east of the Rideau-Sussex intersection. A broken watermain gushed dirty brown water into the sinkhole, which also ruptured a gas line.

There were no known injuries and no workers from the LRT construction unaccounted for, the city said.

Officers are on the scene directing traffic, but Ottawa Police Const. Marc Soucy advised people to follow the City of Ottawa for updates as repairs get underway. Buses were being rerouted. The City of Ottawa website announced the following road closures due to the “infrastructure failure”:

Rideau Street/Wellington Street eastbound is closed between Elgin Street southbound and Dalhousie Street

Rideau Street/Wellington Street westbound is closed between Dalhousie Street and Sussex Drive

Sussex Drive is closed between Rideau Street and York Street

Elgin Street northbound is closed between Albert Street and Rideau Street

OC Transpo buses have been rerouted to Mackenzie King Bridge and Watson said the collapse will disrupt the afternoon and Friday morning commutes.

The city was using a drone to survey the scene from the air. Engineers have not been able to get up close for a detailed look because of ongoing safety concerns.

Twitter exploded with pictures of the sinkhole and reports of the “foul” smell of gas. The collapse soon spread across all four lanes of Rideau Street between the Rideau Centre and Chapters, swallowing a dark van that had been parked outside Chapters. The gas leak was the reason for most of the evacuations, but the leak is now under control.