potholes

Saturday February 17, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 17, 2018

It’s potholes vs. buses this winter in Hamilton, and potholes are winning

Best winter … E-V-E-R … if you’re a Hamilton pothole, in which case you practically own the city this season, or its curb lanes at the very least.

February 13, 2015

Worst winter ever, if you happen to be a ball joint or some other part of an automobile steering and suspension system; or if you’re a driver relying on such parts to cushion the half-foot drops into craters so big they should have their own bike lanes.

Roads crews in Hamilton are responding with “all hands on deck” as they attempt to repair damage to the road in several priority areas across the city, day and night, filling literally hundreds of potholes with tons of asphalt, said the city’s public works department on Wednesday.

Even the bus drivers won’t drive some stretches of Hamilton road, so pockmarked are they, especially one of the city’s busiest streets, Main West, by the McMaster hospital. Earlier this week they launched a workplace refusal, unwilling to service some stops on Main West, instead posting notices at those stops and detouring around them, says Eric Tuck, president Local 107, Amalgamated Transit Union.

Worst ever for potholes?

“Anecdotal,” says Dan McKinnon. “But, yeah, it’s the worst I’ve seen.” And he’s seen a lot. Dan’s been general manager of Hamilton Public Works for a year and a half but before that spent decades on the roads with the department.

That’s why “we’re out there, day and night,” says Dan, of his public works teams, “on pothole duty.” Every unit, unless an emergency pulls them off. He’s not even sure how many workers he’s got on it because, beside city staff, he’s called in contract workers to help.

“I think it’s a few things,” says Dan. “There’s the freeze-thaw cycle but we get that every year. Twenty years ago we’d get it a couple of times a winter but lately it’s happening five to six times a winter. The frequency of the cycle has increased.

“And my personal theory is that the really bad winter we had in 2014-2015, with extraordinary cold, did damage that is just manifesting now.” (Source: Jeff Mahoney, Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Wednesday January 18, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 18, 2017

Funds must double to keep Hamilton roads at ‘C’ level: report

The city needs to double asphalt repair spending over the next decade just to keep increasingly rutted roads in fair shape, a new analysis shows.

As it is, municipal road conditions — particularly neighbourhood streets and urban collectors — are deteriorating steadily because the city budget isn’t keeping up with needed repairs, says public works head Dan McKinnon.

“We’re not sustainable … We know the overall condition rating is going to decline,” McKinnon said during a presentation to councillors on the city’s latest road condition analysis.

That report suggests Hamilton must spend about $521 million on repairs and reconstruction over the next 10 years just to hold the line on existing road conditions. We’re on track to spend only half that amount, with about $25.5-million slated to be directed to such repairs in 2017.

The city actually spends closer to $80 million a year on all things roads-related — but that includes bridges, sidewalks and street lights, traffic engineering, technical studies and construction related to new development. 

The city bases its latest dire prediction on a roads condition index calculated with the help of a consultant who used ground-penetrating laser technology and visual inspections to evaluate all municipal roads block by block.

Based on the latest study, the city has awarded itself a “C” grade for roads — defined as “fair with some deterioration or defects evident” — or an average condition index of 62.

The “optimum” target condition index for roads is 81. While the city’s two parkways are close to that target level of driveability, residential streets and urban collectors have an average condition index closer to 58.

The latest public report doesn’t finger particularly bad roads or neighbourhoods, but a photo presentation to councillors used a spiderweb-cracked section of Chapple Street in Stoney Creek to illustrate a road in need of a rebuild. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

Doubled Published – Oopsie.

Published in the Western Star, Corner Brook, Newfoundland – January 

Published in the Western Star, Corner Brook, Newfoundland – January 20, 2017

 

Wednesday September 17, 2014

Wednesday September 17, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 17, 2014

There’s a pothole in Hamilton’s roads budget

The city has run out of money to repair local roads.

Friday, August 15, 2014The annual capital roads budget for Hamilton is close to $70 million, but most of that cash is used to fix highways, arterial roads, bus routes and bridges.

The city relied for several years on $25 million left over from a provincial grant to deal with neighbourhood streets — but that money has been used up.

That means local roads will not be rebuilt unless they’re dug up for sewer work or already identified on a four-year-old council priority list, said engineering director Gary Moore.

Residents in Wards 1 through 8 can also lobby councillors to use area rating cash. Each of those wards has a $1.6-million annual budget, but fewer than a dozen repaving projects have used that discretionary money so far.

Moore said relying on “ad hoc, unplanned” spending for residential streets won’t work.

“We will have (local) roads go down to gravel before we get to them unless we come up with a predictable funding source,” he said after a public works meeting Monday.

He told worried councillors at the meeting there is still a budget for minor repairs like filling potholes, and “emergency failures” like sinkholes are immediately fixed — but that money is pulled out of other planned projects.

“So we have no local roads program budgeted, no maintenance program, and you’re telling me we jut sit here and let them deteriorate?” asked Councillor Scott Duvall.

Public works head Gerry Davis said ideally, the city should spend an extra $90 million a year to properly maintain all roads and bridges. He also noted council has repeatedly asked staff for near-zero budget increases in an effort to keep taxes low.

“I could move money around, but that means the main roads will suffer, and that is a concern for liability,” he said. “We know what we have to do, we just can’t do it.”

Moore told councillors he will come back with options to create a sustainable tax-supported pot of cash for local streets in time for the 2015 budget debate. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

LETTER to the EDITOR

Well done, Graeme MacKay. Hamilton now has beautiful bike lanes but no money to repair our dangerous and deplorable roads for our licensed vehicles to travel on.

Big question? What are city employees doing if there is no money to fix anything? It appears that everyone is getting well paid to work but cannot do the work because of lack of funds. If there is no money to do the work, what are the employees doing? Apparently 80 per cent of the budget is going to salaries. How does a city operate on 20 per cent funding?

Yes, we have a big problem and why are councillors spending money on things like statues and LRT issues when the city is plain broke and mismanaged? I guess the next step is filing for bankruptcy protection. It now appears to be the biggest game in town.

When is a sink hole not a sink hole? When it hasn’t sunk in yet. A big election is coming up and I sincerely hope we have the biggest turnout ever as all the good things happening in Hamilton can fall through if you cannot get to them because of burst water mains and roads with sinkholes.

Joan Campbell, Hamilton