Digging up road-repair costs

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/04/2017 (3195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is a street-level sense this spring — even as the City of Winnipeg is set to spend a record $105.2 million on street renewal — that our roughed-up roadways have never looked so bad.

It’s not just the expected gutter gravel and potholes. It’s the unexpected and unnecessary level of curb carnage levelled this winter by snowplow operators and, more specifically, their big, brutal blades. Most noticeably, it’s all those curb parts left behind on the sod-busted boulevards.

Not to mention — at least not right now — the sidewalks.

All it takes to get a feel for what the public thinks of the amount of curbside damage — and who’s to blame for it — is a quick look at the comments under Monday’s Free Press story about the citywide spring cleanup that’s underway and the kind of added workload crews face this year.

“I’ve been living in East Fort Garry/Wildewood area for 18 years,” wrote one commentator, “and this is the worst it’s ever been for snow removal damage. They always refer to the snow-removal budget but don’t hear too much about the costs to repair the damage they cause while doing it.”

The feeling is that over-winter damage has been getting worse since the city decided to turn what is now 80 per cent of its snow-clearing work over to private contractors.

CUPE Local 500 president Gord Delbridge is happy to tell you, as he told me Friday, private contractors tend to pay less and make their less-experienced heavy equipment operators work longer hours, which creates high turnover.

Or so he claims.

“I certainly don’t believe everything the unions say about snow clearing,” wrote another commentator, “but I do believe that the increase in ripped-up curbs is due to the increase in contracted private snow clearing. They are totally careless and only care about doing the job as quickly as possible. There doesn’t seem to be any punishment for completely destroying the curbs in the process, so why would they slow down?”

That basically speaks to the consensus.

This week, I asked city officials if they do annual street-condition surveys and if they have noticed any trends in the level of damage because of that commonly held belief that it’s become worse since the private contractors were put in the driver’s seat.

They didn’t provide a direct answer.

Instead, the city blamed the weather, while offering some statistics that suggested a trend.

“The amount of curb and turf damage following winter snow clearing is directly related to the amount of snow received during a winter season,” a city spokesperson responded, “and the number of snow-clearing operations that are undertaken in a given season, as well as other factors such as whether or not the ground was completely frozen when snow clearing was first required.

“Citizens should contact 311 to identify locations where broken curb is present so it can be removed and to report any other snow clearing damage.”

Judging by the numbers provided, that’s what citizens have been doing more of in recent years.

In 2015, the city received 1,210 service requests related to snow-clearing damage that included broken curbs and torn-up turf. By 2016, the complaint calls had climbed to 1,530. And this year — so far — it’s closing in on 1,800.

Take what you will from that.

But, as we all know only too well, the city’s post-winter attempt at damage control doesn’t involve just curbs and boulevards.

Add to that sidewalk damage — there have been more than 1,300 repair-request calls from citizens over each of the last two years — and, of course, potholes.

The city doesn’t do an annual pothole count because, well, that could take two years. But it does track how many people call to report potholes.

Two years ago, there were 5,533 calls, if you can imagine. Last year, the number leaped to 8,411. This year, it’s more than 2,700 and counting.

By the way, the annual budget for patching and filling potholes is about $1.8 million, which — it should be noted — is less than the $2.4 million to be spent on sidewalk repair.

As for the cost of repairing all the damage to curbs and boulevards, the city says that’s rolled into the overall concrete repair budget and apparently it doesn’t break that out.

But it should — and you know why?

Because, according to the city, “if it is determined that a contractor had control over the location at the time the damage occurred, the contractor is responsible for the repairs including the cost of the repairs.”

Anyway, it seems there is no end to the destruction being done to Winnipeg streets by snowplows, but there’s more to it than the infrastructure costs.

They’re damaging our beautiful summer look. Or, as some might call it, our curb appeal.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca