Spring spruce-up to keep Markham beautiful

Markham earned a silver bicycle friendly communities award

Thestar.com
May 12, 2022
Yoyo Yan

The city of Markham operations department is working hard to provide road, park and trail maintenance services, to help keep Markham beautiful, so residents can safely enjoy public outdoor spaces this spring and summer.

"I am proud of the City of Markham's commitment to using innovative, cost-effective and sustainable solutions to maintain a superb state of good repair on our road infrastructure," said Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti.

"Our roads continue to be among the best in Ontario and exceed provincial standards when it comes to our road rehabilitation programs. This is a testament to the hard work by our Operations team and I thank them for working diligently to keep our parks, trails and roads safe and well maintained year after year."

According to a city statement, Markham's road rehabilitation efforts are among the best in the province, with a significant portion of the city's roads in a state of good repair, as identified through the most recent biennial pavement laser condition survey.

Every year, road and sidewalk surfaces are proactively inspected, treated and repaired using environmentally friendly methods. In 2021, approximately 3,000 potholes were repaired, a significant decrease from the previous years due to our proactive, preventative maintenance program.

This spring, Markham is continuing a pilot with Visual Defence Inc. (VDI) that uses artificial intelligence (AI) software to detect and log potholes. The pilot has allowed improvements to service levels and regulatory compliance and was expanded last year to further detect other surface continuities - allowing repair crews to respond more quickly and efficiently.

The city of Markham gained national recognition and won several awards for its use of VDI's ROVER Technology, including the Ontario Good Roads Association John Niedra Better Practices Award, and IDC Government Insights' Smart Cities North America Award (SCNAA) for the Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, Public Transit, Ride-hailing and Ride-sharing category.

Markham's investments in transportation planning, infrastructure, education and programming have also earned the city a Silver Bicycle Friendly Communities Award from the Share the Road Cycling Coalition.

Crews are currently cutting grass, making repairs, and cleaning up litter in parks, open spaces and trails to help keep Markham beautiful.

Ahead of schedule, the city has completed the third year of its Neighbourhood Tree Maintenance Program. Crews worked throughout the Winter to help reduce LDD Moth populations in Markham and they continue to actively monitor activity throughout the city. Learn how you can protect the trees on your property from this invasive species at markham.ca/LDDMoth.

Help keep Markham beautiful and dispose of used facemasks, gloves and wipes in park garbage bins or bring them home for curbside pick-up. Household waste and pet waste belong in the correct container for curbside pick-up at your home. Please do not litter in our parks and open spaces. Use Markham's "What Goes Where" tool on the Access Markham mobile app or on the city website if you need more information.

Members of the public can report potholes, damaged amenities or request street tree service online at markham.ca, by calling the Contact Centre at 905.477.5530 or by e-mail at customerservice@markham.ca.