Toronto Queens Quay & Water's Edge Revitalization | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

PinkLucy said:
The city doesn't require it, I don't know why. A number of spots were dug up in our new sidewalks to do hydro repairs and now there are a whole bunch of asphalt patches. The councillor's office reports that hydro is not required to return the sidewalks to their original condition but that the city will do it at some point. Which probably means never. It's ridiculous, proper restoring should be required.
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I swear this city is so dysfunctional. Why should this even be allowed to happen? What sort of morons do we have running this city? There's no planning or coordination involved in anything.
 
PinkLucy said:
The city doesn't require it, I don't know why. A number of spots were dug up in our new sidewalks to do hydro repairs and now there are a whole bunch of asphalt patches. The councillor's office reports that hydro is not required to return the sidewalks to their original condition but that the city will do it at some point. Which probably means never. It's ridiculous, proper restoring should be required.
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They pay the city to do it. The city gets around to it, eventually.
 
hawc said:
Wow. That PDF really shows the incredible amount of work and co-ordination that went into all of this. It's going to look amazing. I just pray, pray, pray that the utilities don't start ripping it all up in the coming years to do work they couldn't complete before it was built. Can you imagine all the lovely brick work just being a patch job or asphalt and bricks after the utilities get done wrecking stuff the way they do to all newly completed projects in this city? Please let a decade pass before it all starts getting ruined.
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From your mouth to God's ears!

In ultra dysfunctional Serbia, when utilities cut into pavers (most sidewalks in Belgrade are decorative pavers be it coloured concrete or granite) they do their business and return it to the state they found it.

Apparently that's a challenge here.
 
I'd think the repairs would be easier with the granite cobbles. The utilities shouldn't need to cut into anything. Just remove the cobbles, do the work and then put them back after. I'd think backfilling with asphalt would be a more expensive option for the utilities. Time will tell I guess.
 
My understanding is that there will be a moratorium on utility works after the QQ project is complete - we shall see. Over the years I find that the most effective way of ensuring things get done in Canada is make sure you complain copiously - and not to the bit players (which are about as empowered as your call centre drone) - it's sad that squeaky wheel gets the grease is such a way of life here.

AoD
 
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
My understanding is that there will be a moratorium on utility works after the QQ project is complete - we shall see. Over the years I find that the most effective way of ensuring things get done in Canada is make sure you complain copiously - and not to the bit players (which are about as empowered as your call centre drone) - it's sad that squeaky wheel gets the grease is such a way of life here.

AoD
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There are always moratoria after major street and sidewalk work BUT there is a huge loophole as utility companies can still get permits for 'emergencies' and these seem to include things like system upgrades. The whole permit system and the fees need to be properly addressed; in Montreal they used to deal with it (and may still do so) by offering utility companies a 'free-for all' period for a year (?) prior to major street repair work when they could dig things up and not have to pay the full restoration fees but then once the street was repaired the fees were MUCH higher for x years.
 
DSC said:
There are always moratoria after major street and sidewalk work BUT there is a huge loophole as utility companies can still get permits for 'emergencies' and these seem to include things like system upgrades.
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Makes me so frustrated. I get that we have end up with patchy roads in Toronto after years of use and freeze and thaw cycles, but after they've FINALLY been repaved and fixed it just breaks my heart to see them getting cut up and wrecked within a year. It's like really? Really? You couldn't have had the foresight to do the work just before that year?

Some examples I can think of recently. Avenue road was repaved from Lawrence to Eglinton. Within a year it was all cut open again and now has a big long patch running the full length of it. And the patches are always done so poorly. Parliament south of Front near the Distillery was repaved and sure enough it was cut open in a just a few month for some utility work.

Now Front Street just east of the St. Lawrence Market and Richmond from the offramp to downtown have been gorgeous repaved. How long to these are all destroyed again?

It seems the only roads that are safe after a repave are highways because there's no utilities running underneath it.

To me it's like you have your wall re-drywalled after it was cracked for years and then as soon as the new drywall and paint is on, an electrician comes in and just cuts it open to change out some wires and then re-patches it poorly and doesn't repaint it. It's just such a load of crap that we put up with.
 
Not only is this an aesthetics issue - it's also one of cost as well. How much resources are needlessly expended (often multiple times) because the organizations involved failed to coordinate and anticipate utility works?

AoD
 
hawc said:
They should be, but they never ever do. They just do a crappy half-ass patch job and move on to destroy the next freshly paved street (let's see how long Richmond lasts.) Let's just hope it doesn't happen.
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Any utility that does work in a public boulevard MUST return the boulevard to the condition it was in prior to the work done. The utilities are allowed to leave it in a temporary state after if they intend to come back and complete the work, but if the City has to do the repair they then will bill the utility for the cost of the work plus a premium.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
Sounds nice, Dan, but it doesn't explain the patches all over the city, many of which have been there for years.
 
smallspy said:
Any utility that does work in a public boulevard MUST return the boulevard to the condition it was in prior to the work done. The utilities are allowed to leave it in a temporary state after if they intend to come back and complete the work, but if the City has to do the repair they then will bill the utility for the cost of the work plus a premium.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
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The city sucks at enforcing this. If it were up to me, I'd be on Hydro like a pig on shit - no mercy.

Their butchering makes my OCD go sky high.
 
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