Ten years and counting to fix washed out culvert and footpath: The Fixer
The culvert was damaged during a rainstorm more than 10 years ago, making it the longest unresolved problem we’ve written about.
thestar.com
By JACK LAKEY
Aug. 30, 2017
Patience is a virtue, but when a problem remains unresolved for more than 10 years, people can’t be blamed for getting fed up.
The city’s response to a washed out culvert with a popular footpath that ran across the top of it, in a ravine at the bottom of Bennett Rd., has definitely tried the patience of local residents.
We first wrote about it in 2009, when it had already been at least three years since the washout occurred in a heavy rainstorm, and have since reported on it several times, along with a range of excuses for why it wasn’t fixed.
Kelly Byrnes, who’s sent us numerous notes about it over the years, emailed to say it still hasn’t been fixed, adding, “I know I sound like a broken record on this.”
It is certainly a familiar tune, and particularly the range of responses from Toronto Water and transportation services, which have been whistling into the wind instead of doing something about it.
Two huge culvert pipes that channelled water through the ravine were badly damaged by flooding, which washed out the footpath and closed a handy shortcut between Bennett and Coronation Dr.
People who work at industrial facilities on Coronation relied on the path as a shortcut to TTC buses on Lawrence Ave., while local residents used it as a shortcut to waterfront parks.
After it was closed, the city put up chain-link fencing topped by barbed wire on both sides to keep people away from it; the fences have been there so long that they’re almost entirely covered by climbing weeds.
We’ve fielded a range of excuses for why it hasn’t been repaired, but the best one came from a city official in 2014, who blamed “an exposed elevated water main currently running across the watercourse.”
He said the water main would be replaced and buried below the water course or relocated in 2015, prior to the bundling scope of work to be performed. Once the water main has been completed, the culvert and pedestrian bridge will be re-established.”
None of which came true. It’s apparent that the logistical challenges are formidable, but isn’t 10 years - which makes it by far the longest unresolved problem we’ve ever written about - enough time to figure it out?
STATUS: We’ve sent another note to Toronto Water, asking about the delay and if there’s yet another timetable to fix it. But we’re not expecting good news.
