Monolithic Sidewalk

[Archivist]

Below is a photo of a rather creepy or intimidating sign that I came across today in one of our city's less charming neighbourhoods. I am very curious as to its intent - it seems official, but I can't really imagine what it is trying to say. Does anybody know what this means?

[scarberiankhatru]

It means the sidewalk and curb are poured together, made of one blob of concrete. Perhaps it's verboten for plows to plow there?

[Prometheus The Supremo]

It means the sidewalk and curb are poured together, made of one blob of concrete. Perhaps it's verboten for plows to plow there?

maybe the sign is there to warn street plows not to plow close to the curb so snow from the road won't get piled onto the sidewalk?

[junctionist]

What's so creepy about it?

[Observer Walt]

It means the sidewalk and curb are poured together, made of one blob of concrete. Perhaps it's verboten for plows to plow there?

That's not what the graphic on the sign itself seems to indicate.

Archivist, do you have a picture of the actual sidewalk?

[Archivist]

It's creepy because the truck looks rather threatening, and the word "monolithic" is suggestive of rigidity, massiveness and unformity. Maybe it's just me - but none of these are necessarily good qualities in my opinion.

I didn't even think to take a photo of the sidewalk. Sorry. I guess that would have been an obvious thing to do.

[scarberiankhatru]

What was the less charming neighbourhood?

That's not what the graphic on the sign itself seems to indicate.

Archivist, do you have a picture of the actual sidewalk?

Well, plows are plowing everywhere, so they must need to know when sidewalks become monolithic for a reason. Plow closer to the monolith? Farther away from the monolith?

[Hipster Duck]

Here's a monolithic sidewalk being poured (the one continuous blob), as opposed to typical Toronto practice of pouring the sidewalk separate from the curb and one slab at a time:



I don't know why that menacing truck has cartoon eyes for headlights...

[kettal]

So a monolithic sidewalk is one that goes through the desert?

[Woodbridge_Heights]

This link might help. Aside from sidewalk and curb being laid in one blob it looks like monolithic sidewalks are also laid close to the street with no barrier between the street and the sidewalk. Ploughs then have nowhere to store snow and street ploughs are apparently instructed to leave the snow piles on the street rather than onto the sidewalk.

[wyliepoon]

What was the less charming neighbourhood?

I've seen the signs along Eglinton Avenue East in Scarborough, specifically between Brimley and Midland.

[nfitz]

Aside from sidewalk and curb being laid in one blob it looks like monolithic sidewalks are also laid close to the street with no barrier between the street and the sidewalk. Ploughs then have nowhere to store snow and street ploughs are apparently instructed to leave the snow piles on the street rather than onto the sidewalk.

Which all sounds like any typical non-suburban city sidewalk. Though the new one past my house last year simply used a cement-mixer and forms ... would have been pretty hard to use a machine given all the hydro poles in the sidewalk.

So a monolithic sidewalk is just a typical city sidewalk then ... well typical since they got rid of curbstones ...

[hkric88]

Looks like as far as the city is concerned, a monolithic sidewalk is any sidewalk that is not separated from the street by a boulevard, i.e., the sidewalk goes right to the curb. It's as simple as that. I don't think this necessarily requires that it is of monolithic construction, which is something completely different.

[Epi]

I dunno, I thought that sign looks kind of friendly. You can almost make out the the two 'eyes' on the plow (the lights), with a big nose (the grille) and a big happy face mouth (the plow).

[Prometheus The Supremo]

since it's a sign to warn plows not to plow close to the monolithic sidewalk, shouldn't the plow graphic in the sign be moving away from curb/sidewalk rather than being right next to it?