City’s spring cleaning to face crumbling concrete curbs

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This article was published 17/04/2017 (3331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A city-wide spring cleaning project starting Tuesday morning will face more than just dirt and dust on the streets of Winnipeg.

Along Fleet Avenue and nearby roads, curbs and sidewalks are broken into pieces, likely the result of snowplow blades. Chunks of concrete ripped free from the curb lay in the nearby grass. Muddy pits and exposed fragments of rebar dot the streets near parks, schools, and homes.

Tracy Lausmann walks her dog along Fleet Avenue to get away from heavy traffic, and she said the damage is becoming a continuing problem for pedestrians.

“It’s not very appealing,” Lausmann said. “It looks like the city’s just not looking after it.”

Lausmann also said the sidewalks in the area are “terrible” for walking, and she expects “that’ll stay like that for awhile.”

The city devoted $105.2 million to street renewal projects in the 2016 budget, with a news release calling it a “record investment” for infrastructure. The city also allocated $2.4 million for sidewalk repair in the same budget.

Despite the funding going to fix the streets and sidewalks, the people who walk the sidewalks and drive on the roads seem unsatisfied. The number of complaints and service requests for potholes and sidewalk repairs have been increasing, according to the city’s database that tracks those inquiries.

But the damaged streets aren’t a sticking point for everyone. Brian Lukie jogs through the area during his lunch breaks at work, and he said damage to the curbs wasn’t terrible — at least when compared to where he lives in the northern part of Winnipeg.

The concrete crumbling into the street will be a prime target across the city for work crews starting their annual cleanup on Tuesday. But like Lausmann, Lukie doesn’t foresee a significant fix happening soon.

“Once it’s shredded, it’s shredded for a year or two,” Lukie said.

He said that he thought some other streets and sidewalks in the area had been repaired and refurbished well by the city, but there always seemed to be damage along the streets. And although the city works to repair and clean the roadways regularly, it’s a problem that just won’t go away.

“It’s the same every year,” Lukie said.

About 7 a.m. today, crews will begin the annual city-wide spring clean up operation, sweeping the entire street network including back lanes over the next five to six weeks. Crews will initially focus on the downtown area, major routes, bridges and overpasses.

To assist in efficient street cleaning operations, temporary “no parking” signs will be placed on some streets to restrict on-street parking during scheduled cleaning times.

matthew.olson@freepress.mb.ca