Massive Sewer Pipe Found Jutting Out of Highway in Osaka

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:46 JST, March 11, 2026

A roughly 4-meter-wide metal pipe that had been buried underground was found protruding from the road at a sewer construction site on a national highway in Kita Ward, Osaka, on Wednesday morning.

According to police, the pipe rose to over ten meters above ground level, but firefighters are working to fix the problem and the pipe has begun to descend.

According to the Osaka City office, the pipe is about 30 meters long. At the construction site, workers were installing the vertical pipe to connect an old sewer pipe at a shallow depth with a new sewer pipe, which was to be buried deeper. The problematic pipe was assembled by burying 2.5-meter-long sections of steel pipe. When completed, it reached about 30 meters underground.

The pipe had been fully installed by Wednesday. Once accumulated groundwater was drained from inside the pipe, a manhole cover was to be put on top. It is not clear what caused the pipe to shoot upward.

The construction site is located about 200 meters east of Hankyu Railway’s Osaka Umeda Station, an area dense with offices and commercial facilities.