A SLIPPERY SITUATION
New sidewalks under water thanks to higher road crowns, lower curb ramps
Nicola Feilden is one of many Westmount residents who has noticed the area’s new sidewalks seem to have trouble draining. She is among residents who have received warning letters from the city about ice they can’t seem to get rid of.
Ursula Boraas is frustrated her brand new city sidewalks are flooding.
The problem is at the corners, where the new curb ramp meets the street. The drain is several houses away and water collects in a pool more than a metre round. A senior with a walker knocked on her door to complain.
She tried to clear it, but that evening, “I looked out and I saw someone fall on their butt in the water,” she said, wondering if something ’s wrong with the city’s neighbourhood reconstruction. “The way they designed it, it doesn’t work for snow.”
Boraas lives in Westmount, where other neighbours received warning letters from the city for ice they can’t get rid of. Water pools on the sidewalk and freezes overnight, but any sand they put out sinks to the bottom of the puddle during the day.
Several complained recently on a shared Facebook group.
“It’s just frustrating and it’s not safe,” said Nicola Feilden, one of the people who got a warning letter. Her streets and sidewalks were redone in 2016. She complained about a low spot beside her house last spring and the contractor redid that part of the sidewalk.
But it’s still collecting water and she can’t keep up with sand.
Edmonton’s seen an average 1.5-per-cent tax increase every year since 2009 to fund neighbourhood renewal.
That means the typical homeowner now pays more than $200 annually for the city to overhaul streets and sidewalks in several neighbourhoods a year, in addition to what each homeowner pays toward reconstructing sidewalks beside his or her property.
Before the program, residents complained streets were so full of potholes they looked Third World. Sidewalks were riddled with cracks and hard to shovel.
But after neighbourhood reconstruction, councillors’ offices continued to field complaints. There were so many complaints, councillors asked administration to double check whether complaints in neighbourhoods with new sidewalks were actually up or down.
City staff presented the data at a recent community services committee meeting, saying complaints dropped an average 30 per cent between the three years before and after neighbourhood renewal for 13 neighbourhoods. But they called that study “inconclusive” because the small data set is easily influenced by a couple regular complaint-filers or a proactive bylaw officer. In two neighbourhoods, complaints went up.
Officials promised to work on better integrating services, encouraging enforcement staff to call drainage workers when a street gutter is blocked by ice, vice versa if drainage staff see an unshovelled sidewalk.
“It’s something we do have to keep an eye on; our design has to work in both seasons,” said Ward 8 Coun. Ben Henderson at the meeting.
The issue in Westmount comes from competing priorities, said Jeff Ward, a city director who oversees neighbourhood renewal efforts.
The new road has a higher crown to improve street drainage, which pushes water to the edges where gutters lead to catch basins. But gutters can get blocked.
In addition, sidewalks have new ramps at all corners to improve accessibility, but those create a low point and can fill with water because not every corner has a catch basin. The catch basins have to line up with existing underground storm sewer lines.
“It’s challenging,” he said. But “spring thaw isn’t unique to neighbourhood renewal ... It’s the nature of being a winter city.”