Do Construction Vehicles Have to Wash Wheels Before Entering Roadway?

[hawc]

River street from just south of King (I guess technically Lower River Street) all the way up to Dundas was absolutely covered in mud today. Like really thick mud all over the streets from dump trucks leaving their construction sites at Regent Park and at West Don Lands area.

It was out of control. And made cycling really slippery. I had to clean my bicycle for about 30 minutes when I got home. And wash my shoes and pants.

I get that construction sites are filthy, but o the construction companies have a responsibility to clean the much off their dump truck's wheels before they pull out on to the streets or is it c'est la vie in the big city?

Who can I call if they are infact liable for the incredible mess they create?

 

[rbt]

I get that construction sites are filthy, but o the construction companies have a responsibility to clean the much off their dump truck's wheels before they pull out on to the streets or is it c'est la vie in the big city?

Who can I call if they are infact liable for the incredible mess they create?

Yes, they are required to cleanup their mess on city streets. It's not uncommon to see twice daily street sweepers on Charles.

However, is River Street actually a city street now? The entire area was handed over to the TWC and their contractors for a long time; was it handed back to city control?

 

[hawc]

River From Gerrard all the way south to King? I would sure as heck think it's a city street.

 

[smallspy]

On top of everything else, call 311 and report it. The City will send out bylaw enforcement to find if the equipment is not being cleaned well enough, and the streets washed often enough.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[wopchop]

Yes, they should be doing it. Usually they place a sort of mud mat at the entrance/exit of the site.

Often they are also obliged to erect those silt barriers on the storm drains to prevent the particulates that are tracking onto the streets from silting up the drain.

 

[mdrejhon]

Tweet that image to @311Toronto.

 

[hawc]

You can tweet 311 as well? Is it more effective than calling?

 

[Tuscani01]

You can tweet 311 as well? Is it more effective than calling?

You can email them too. They respond within 24 hours.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Yes, they are required to cleanup their mess on city streets. It's not uncommon to see twice daily street sweepers on Charles.

However, is River Street actually a city street now? The entire area was handed over to the TWC and their contractors for a long time; was it handed back to city control?

Regardless of if the street is privately owned, I'd expect that laws or by-laws would require all publicly accessible roads to be maintained in a safe condition. If that regulation is not on the books, it is a loophole that needs to be closed. It's not inconceivable that a cyclist could've gotten hurt or worse because of the poor conditions.

 

[wopchop]

Regardless of if the street is privately owned, I'd expect that laws or by-laws would require all publicly accessible roads to be maintained in a safe condition. If that regulation is not on the books, it is a loophole that needs to be closed. It's not inconceivable that a cyclist could've gotten hurt or worse because of the poor conditions.

An unassumed road can be publicly accessible but is still considered to be "use at your own risk" and is signed as such.

I don't believe the municipality can do very much, because if the road is unassumed, it means that the road hasn't been turned over and become their responsibility yet.

 

[drum118]

Contractors are to sweep clean and power wash road for x distance from the job site daily and more than once a day. It depends on the contractor with some doing little as possible until force to do so.

Different story for unassumed roads, but must be clean where it connect to regular road. Unassumed roads are at "your own risk" and not much the city can do about it other than try to get the contractor to do some cleaning.

 

[smallspy]

An unassumed road can be publicly accessible but is still considered to be "use at your own risk" and is signed as such.

I don't believe the municipality can do very much, because if the road is unassumed, it means that the road hasn't been turned over and become their responsibility yet.

While this is true, the construction company still has a liability for its use of assumed public roads in the vicinity.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[mdrejhon]

You can tweet 311 as well? Is it more effective than calling?

Depends on issue priority, but on average equally as effective for many issue categories.

However, for issues best explained in a photo, it's far more effective than phone.
An example of rapid response to my own picture on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/mdrejhon/status/632202770230153216

After I tweeted this picture to @311Toronto about an electrocution hazard, 311 tweet-replied and fixed this the same day. The repair was very fast.

It's especially effective for cameraphone tweets to 311 on high-urgency issues like foot-deep axle-wrecking potholes, to toddler electrocution hazards. They pouce quickly on those, and the cameraphone pics helps.

311 Toronto has a pretty neat high tech "situation room" that handles phone/email/tweets/etc, can throttle up/down based on demand and traffic (e.g. major storms) and are able triage, prioritize, and dispatch, no matter where the 311 complaint comes from.

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(Credit: Cameron McLeod @c_9)

Mud would not warrant a critical/emergency response but highlighting the safety risk to bicyclists, will catch attention, and they can triage a solution of some kind, like ordering the construction site to do tire-washing, and/or dispatching road cleaning that's billed to the construction company.

Because you have a dramatic graphic to provide to Toronto, this pretty much defacto makes @311Toronto more effective than telephone, in an explanation. Saying "I almost slipped on mud" on the phone isn't as dramatic as that graphic, you know! Along with the image, you can also tweet a link to this UrbanToronto post.

Toronto really now has a 21st century 311 system which looks at emailed/tweeted photos/videos/texts/hyperlinks provided by Toronto residents, to help dispatch a response.

 

[hawc]

Different story for unassumed roads, but must be clean where it connect to regular road. Unassumed roads are at "your own risk" and not much the city can do about it other than try to get the contractor to do some cleaning.

River isn't an unassumed road is it?

 

[drum118]

River isn't an unassumed road is it?

River St north of King has been a city street since it was first pave and before then.

I can't say 100% if the road south of King has been turn over to the city. If it has a top coat on it, then its a city street.

If there mud on River Street north of King, the contractors should be cleaning those areas up since they are city streets.

If no luck with 311, then go after the ward councilor, TPW and the Mayor to get it clean up.