Road’s cavernous cavity needs a filling. ASAP
Slamming into a pothole is a not uncommon occurrence in Toronto, but some are a lot more jarring than others. That’s one way to describe a road cavity at one end of a large utility cut on Fairview Mall Dr., a hole that will rattle the bones of drivers unlucky enough to find it with their vehicles. It surely rattled ours. Last winter wasn’t the most brutal in decades just because of the weather, but also for the staggering number of potholes it spawned. And a lot of them were deep and enormous before they were filled. The forecast is for similar weather this winter, which means ideal conditions for another crop of potholes that will only add to the misery of driving in ice and snow. We were reminded of what’s in store while driving on Fairview Mall Dr., which runs around the periphery of Fairview Mall, at Sheppard Ave. and Don Mills Rd. We’d just pulled out of the mall and headed east along the ring road when the right front wheel plunged into a hole we didn’t see. It felt like a bomb went off under the car. It was so startling that we pulled back into the mall to check for damage. The car was OK, but we were sufficiently shaken that we were compelled to go back and take a look.
The hole is at one end of a large asphalt patch surrounding a utility chamber, and is so large and deep — at least for a warm weather pothole — that it has likely damaged a car wheel or two by now.
Lucky for us that we weren’t going fast when we hit it. For a driver tootling along at the speed limit after dark, when the hole would be even harder to see, it would be a shattering surprise.
Such a large hole in the road would normally have attracted the attention of transportation services, but this one has remained under the radar. Status: We’ve asked Hector Moreno, manager of road operations in that area, if he can have the hole filled right away, before somebody drives into it and disappears. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer or call us at 416-869-4823. To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer . Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.