Missing barriers could let snow pile up on sidewalks
With winter just around the corner, missing metal barriers along a Bathurst St. underpass are looking like a serious loss.
Our excellent fall weather makes it easy to push the imminent arrival of cold and snow out of mind. And there’s more to come; the 30-day forecast shows warm temperatures through the end of November.
But it cannot last. When the first blast of winter descends, there’ll surely be regret over the things that weren’t done to get ready, especially on our roads and sidewalks.
Jill McLean emailed to say a snowplow knocked down two metal barriers that separate traffic from the sidewalk along the southbound lanes of the Highway 401 underpass on Bathurst St., just south of Wilson Ave.
“I called 311 Toronto to report it,” she said, adding that they ended up on the sidewalk. “The city was very prompt and had it removed within a day or so.
“So now, after a few calls to the city, the missing dividers have not been replaced.
“I foresee a problem come winter, when (snowplows) are going through this underpass and the snow ends up on the sidewalk, making an already small space to walk even smaller, or worse, impassible.”
We checked it out and saw that two barriers are missing just inside the underpass, but there’s a much longer gap right at the north end, where vehicles enter the tunnel.
Judging by the bolts sticking out of the curb, at least four more have disappeared, at a point where plows pushing snow from the open area to the north of the underpass will surely pile it onto the sidewalk.
With the wall of the underpass on the other side of the sidewalk, there’s not much room to clamber over a snowbank. And when the barriers are missing, scaling a snowbank could be downright dangerous.
We noticed that several barriers were also missing from the nearby 401underpass at Wilson Ave., just around the corner from the Bathurst tunnel. Status: We’ve asked Hector Moreno, who’s in charge of road operations in that area, if he can arrange to have the barriers in the Bathurst and Wilson underpasses replaced before winter gets here. 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 email jlakey@thestar.ca. To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.