July 13th, 2009 ~ After several days of erosion, heavy rain runoff from a passing thunderstorm lead to a rapid soil collapse Monday afternoon.  Around 1500 a passing semi caused enough vibration to collapse a large area under the street pavement along Oxford Avenue at the Platte River Bridge.  One worker observed the movement and alerted his coworkers to run.  His actions likely spared 4 men from serious injuries as they safely escaped the collapse area by seconds.  One large piece of concrete was left bearing weight on a 4 inch natural gas line, construction crews stabilized the pipe with a tractor bucket and waited to Xcel to arrive.  Sheridan Firefighters stood by for several hours while the gas mitigation took place.  Mutual aid from Englewood was also used when Xcel began operating in the collapse zone.  No injuries occurred and Oxford remained closed for 24 hours.  Eric Hurst Photos