Utility chamber cover is trouble for drivers
There are many reasons for a wheel-busting hole in the road, but a broken cover on top of a utility chamber shouldn’t be one of them.
In our last column we touched on the imminent arrival of pothole season, and how the pernicious craters are formed. As soon as the snow flies and then melts, potholes will surely follow.
And when they start to pop up, it’ll be drivers who’ll pay the piper. Or more likely their mechanic. The worst side effect of potholes is the damage they do to vehicles.
Every winter, we get many notes from people who hit a pothole that caused their tire to blow out, or the metal rim to bend, or even damaged the steering gear or undercarriage.
They’re right to be peeved about the consequences and cost of potholes. As long as roads are paved with asphalt, there’s no way around them. The world is far from perfect, particularly in the winter.
But it is reasonable to expect other holes in the road, like a utility chamber with a broken cover, to be fixed as soon as possible, before someone drives into it and snaps a wheel.
Aggie Brook sent us a note saying she recently “was crossing the street at King and Sumach Sts. and noticed a manhole cover broken into three pieces.
“It was doing a poor job of covering the hole it was meant to protect us from.”
We went there and found the broken pieces inside a utility chamber, also known as a utility well. As utility chambers go, it may be shallow, but it is still deep enough to be a serious problem for anyone who hits it with a vehicle.
It is just inches away from TTC streetcar tracks and not far from a pedestrian crossing used by people to get from one side of King to the other, in an area that grows busier by the day, as more condos sprout up. Status: Eric Holmes, a spokesperson for transportation services, emailed to say “staff have investigated the site and taken steps to mark the location (using a safety cone) for road users to be aware of (and avoid) the shallow well created by the broken cover. A replacement cover will be installed by the city’s electrical contractor soon.” They better hurry. A pylon on top of the hole will get knocked over by the first streetcar that comes along.