Toronto Berczy Park Revitalization | ?m | ?s

I walked by last night and noticed that the contractors had actually cut the pavers up to make the utility cut - instead of doing the rational thing of simply lifting them up and laying them back down when they are done. Now a proper fix after work is completed will require entirely new pavers.
 
innsertnamehere said:
I walked by last night and noticed that the contractors had actually cut the pavers up to make the utility cut - instead of doing the rational thing of simply lifting them up and laying them back down when they are done. Now a proper fix after work is completed will require entirely new pavers.
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This - and I have seen variants of the issue pretty much everywhere (e.g. Yonge BIA - where the large black granite insets were blithely getting sliced through for utility work *all the time*). Just what is with this city? Someone should go out there and do an accounting of how much wasted time and money stems from the current way of doing things (on top of assigning an economic value for substandard public realm due to delays in utility work and the subsequent restoration project).

AoD
 
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Hydro crews did the same thing at Maple Leaf Square. Projects must include extra materials to cover inevitable maintenance work, and maintenance work should include putting things reasonably back together aesthetically.

Little things like this make up the agonizingly short bridge between being a "great city" and feeling like we actually live in one.
 
sikandar said:
Hydro crews did the same thing at Maple Leaf Square. Projects must include extra materials to cover inevitable maintenance work, and maintenance work should include putting things reasonably back together aesthetically.
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Yeah, on paper - except it only get done x-years later and get all torn up in no time. Public realm cannot wait x-years for the work to get done when they finally got around to it - it is a benefit that gets eroded every day the environment is presented in a degraded manner.

AoD
 
Thank you for confirming why I think this city is a bit of a joke sometimes...

In other cities (from much poorer countries), pavers are lifted and piled next to the utility work, the utility work is completed, and the pavers neatly dropped back into place. That is the benefit of pavers.

In Toronto, they like to sell you lies such as 'the ground needs to settle before we can finish the work' which is a load of shit. This is why after 3-5 years, there are still asphalt patches where pavers once were.
 
To be fair I have seen contractors do the "lift and replace" once before - on Queens Quay. They put all the pavers back the wrong way though, making it obvious that there was a utility cut.
 
I went to Berczy Park this afternoon and was disheartened to see how the lack of maintenance is already so appearant after just one year. The grass is dead, one of the larger trees is nearly dead. There were asphalt patches which were sliced through the pavers and utility line indicators spray painted on other pavers. The stainless steel box on the south west entrance with the cat sculpture on it was splashed with mud. WTF. This is one of our premiere downtown parks. I left a message with Heidi Weidelich who, according to the Toronto 311 number I phoned, is in charge of Berczy Park maintenance. Her number is 416 338-1891.
 
jozl said:
I went to Berczy Park this afternoon and was disheartened to see how the lack of maintenance is already so appearant after just one year. The grass is dead, one of the larger trees is nearly dead. There were asphalt patches which were sliced through the pavers and utility line indicators spray painted on other pavers. The stainless steel box on the south west entrance with the cat sculpture on it was splashed with mud. WTF. This is one of our premiere downtown parks. I left a message with Heidi Weidelich who, according to the Toronto 311 number I phoned, is in charge of Berczy Park maintenance. Her number is 416 338-1891.
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An expensive redo of the park followed by underground utility work messing up the adjacent sidewalks. That’s Peak Toronto.
 
pman said:
An expensive redo of the park followed by underground utility work messing up the adjacent sidewalks. That’s Peak Toronto.
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I do not intend to be an apologist for the City (a full time job!) but the choice in this case was to wait to re-do the Park until Toronto Hydro got their act together or lay a sidewalk that was likely to be dug up again. The City opted to move ahead on the park and I am glad they did. After Hydro, and now the other utilities, are finished on Wellington and at the Front/Church/Wellington corner the sidewalks will be fixed but the conduits under them will be located to allow for trees and the sidewalk on north side of Front @ Church will be wider. (As will the sidewalk on north side of Wellington.) Of course, it would be better if every utility planned ahead and work was properly scheduled but it really isn't fair to blame the City for all the problems in scheduling. City and TTC plans for Wellington have been postponed many times to accommodate utilities - who then often fail to be ready.

On the dying (??) large tree - the designers and contractors tried VERY hard to save all the healthy trees and adjusted the 'hills' to accommodate them but I agree that the large tree near Scott does not look too healthy. It's not dead and may recover, we shall see.
 
Not sure about the tree in question but to be fair Toronto doesn’t really do irrigation well having neither the climate nor the culture for it, and this summer has been brutally dry.
 
jozl said:
Thanks for the update DSC. I will keep it in mind when I speak to Ms. Weidelich.
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Also, in addition to fact the park maintenance budget has been cut back by the penny-pinchers on Council for many years, it's also, maybe, worth noting that she is very new in this position, she replaced long time (and excellent) Parks Supervisor for downtown parks, Mark Emslie, who retired June 30.
 
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