Filling in gaps, getting up to speed
Pedestrians no longer need to hop across a deep trench in a Kingston Road sidewalk, after the city jumped to fix it.
On Jan. 8, I reported on an L-shaped trench that had been carved across the sidewalk at the northeast corner of Kingston and Brimley Roads, and also along its north side.
Asphalt originally used to fill it had settled so badly that a trench nearly 15 cm deep and 45 cm wide crossed the sidewalk, while a two-metre-long excavation next to it was no less perilous.
Anyone with their nose (well-masked, of course) in their phone was in danger of stepping in it, while those who use a wheelchair or mobility device for transportation would have been stopped in their tracks.
The city said the contractor responsible for it had been asked to go back to refill the holes. Two days later, I got an email from the city with photos showing the trenches filled with asphalt that’s level with the sidewalk.
My Jan. 17 column was about road markings that showed a different speed limit than the signs on Washburn Way, near Sheppard Avenue and Neilson Road, which could have encouraged drivers to go too fast.
As part of an overall lowering of speed limits across Toronto, the posted limit on Washburn Way was reduced to 40 km/h, while markings painted on the road continued to reflect the old limit of 50 km/h.
Allen Pinkerton, who’s in charge of city traffic signage, told me he’d have the road markings removed right away. A short time later, the reader who first told me about it emailed to say they were gone.
On Dec. 28, I wrote about outdated construction road signs that were still on the job, long after the work they alerted drivers was done. In particular, a big one on St. Clair Avenue, west of O’Connor Drive, that warned of a job that wrapped up late in 2019.
The reader who told me about it said she’d reported the sign three times to 311, but couldn’t get the city to take it away.
After an email from a city communicator about the process for reporting it to 311, and a tart reply about how it had, the reader sent me a note a short time later to say the sign had finally vamoosed.
What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Email jlakey@thestar.ca or follow @TOStarFixer on Twitter