Checks on cracked parkway structures skipped
Hamilton recently rushed to do ‘urgent’ repairs to loose bolts on signs over Linc
The city skipped provincially recommended safety inspections on large parkway sign structures that eventually required “urgent” repairs last month.
That’s a concern for councillors who have asked for a detailed report on what other city infrastructure inspections or repairs might be missing.
Hamilton surprised commuters in July when it abruptly closed part of the busy Linc for “urgent” night repairs to the metal skeletons that hold signs above the 80,000 daily parkway motorists.
The sudden work was spurred by the discovery of ignored repair recommendations — to fix cracked brackets, broken welds and loose bolts above traffic — contained in 2012 and 2017 inspection reports.
But in addition to ignoring those suggested repairs, the city also skipped inspections recommended by provincial Ministry of Transportation (MTO) guidelines.
Ontario Sign Support Inspection Guidelines recommend inspection every two to four years, depending on the age and material makeup of the metal structures, said MTO spokesperson Bob Nichols.
Inspections are sometimes needed more frequently, he said, depending on “existing problems” and “material performance condition.”
The city has no inspection results between 2012 and 2017 for the 45 structures, which span the Linc, Red Hill Valley Parkway, Burlington Street and Mountain accesses.
Under the provincial guidelines, Hamilton should have inspected newer sign skeletons at least once more in that time frame — and twice for older aluminum-legged models.
It seems like that was the city’s plan, at least at one point. The most recent report from AECOM in 2017 actually calls its structure inspections part of the city’s “biennial” program.
The city could not say Friday why more regular inspections were not done, but noted the provincial guidelines are considered “good industry practices” rather than mandatory rules. (By comparison, road bridge inspections must be done every two years by law.)
Regardless, city public works spokesperson Jasmine Graham told The Spectator Hamilton is committed to “an improved strategy for managing these assets going forward to ensure biennial inspections.” That includes another round of inspections this fall.
It’s not yet clear if the city is behind on any other infrastructure inspections.
Coun. Brad Clark, a former provincial Tory transportation minister, said Friday he has asked city staff to report back on inspection requirements for all roadway infrastructure “and whether we’re meeting them.”
“Culverts, lighting, bridges, safety rails, all of these things have a risk of failure at some point.”
Public works committee chair Lloyd Ferguson, whose background is in construction, also said he wants a “full report back to see if anything else is missing” when it comes to either repairs or inspections.
While the city has said it does not believe the public was at risk due to the delayed sign structure repairs, one civil engineering professor reached by The Spectator called the listed deficiencies concerning.
“By exceeding the recommended time to repair, Hamilton increased the risk of serious harm to the public and to motorists,” said Ahmed Shalaby, municipal infrastructure chair at the University of Manitoba, who reviewed the 2012 and 2017 inspection summaries.
“Any of these (problems), left unrepaired, could eventually lead to failure of a sign structure or components.”
It’s rare for a big metal sign structure to fall down — but it has happened.
For example, a drunk driver skidded into a support pole of one overhead structure on a North Carolina highway in 2008, causing it to collapse.
That same year, a crack in the base of a metal skeleton looming over a Tennessee highway caused a large green highway sign to crash down into the pavement.
Hamilton is already preparing for a judicial inquiry into how a troubling friction study on the crash-prone Red Hill Valley Parkway was somehow buried for years.
City manager Janette Smith said Friday no request has been made to expand the inquiry to look at the missing sign structure repairs or inspections.