Walk-around work-around needed

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This article was published 18/06/2022 (824 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rimah Bhabha doesn’t drive.

She’s able to get to work and wherever else she needs to be on foot or by public transit from her home in Wolseley.

For weeks on end, a swath of her sidewalk route — Westminister Avenue, between Maryland and Sherbrook streets — has been broken and blocked off, with a few pieces of plywood hastily slapped on top of the gap in the concrete.

It’s made her daily routine more difficult, and said her community’s less mobile are disproportionately affected by losing the walkway space for so long.

“It’s disappointing, but not surprising, to be completely honest,” Bhabha told the Free Press.

“I think it’s very clear to anyone who lives here that the city very clearly prioritizes cars over people.”

Over 3,000 kilometres of sidewalks and pathways are maintained by the city, with the majority of repairs done in the summer. Repairs can be as quick as a bit of asphalt to fix a slight heave in the sidewalk, or the replacement of an entire sidewalk’s concrete.

The city has received 611 sidewalk repair requests since March 1. After a repair has been requested, it is addressed by how severe the damage is, with severe damage tackled first and smaller sidewalk damage following the priority street design used in city plowing — major routes, the downtown area, sidewalks near elementary schools and active-living centres, then residential sidewalks.

Intense swings in weather conditions — much like what Winnipeg’s seen in recent weeks — can play a hand in sidewalk damage, explained streets maintenance manager Michael Cantor.

Conditions moving from dry to wet, or cool to hot, affects the expansion and contraction of the soil under the sidewalks which can cause cracks. Sweltering heat can also damage sidewalks — extra city repair staff were on call over the weekend, Cantor said, both because of the possibility of more repairs needed and making sure workers aren’t overwhelmed in the sun.

“I think that we usually address all the hazardous conditions,” he said.

“We can’t expect all our sidewalks to be mint, with no cracks … but the hazardous ones, most of them, I think are being addressed. But it depends on the expectations.”

The city spends $2 million a year on sidewalk repairs.

If it’s a simple sidewalk repair, turn-around takes a few days on average, and Cantor said streets maintenance won’t leave any broken sidewalk open past the summer repair season. Bigger repairs that might result in blockades for weeks or months on end are typically not just sidewalk repairs, but deeper excavations that are done by private contractors.

“Usually, they should cap it and cover it and allow access,” Cantor said.

The city requires all contractors to provide a plan on how they will maintain accessibility standards for those passing the site, which they are then required to monitor daily.

That answer’s not enough for Allen Mankewich, a long-time advocate for people with disabilities. He said he and others have long called for the city to implement sidewalk work-arounds for people should a repair take a long time to no productive response.

He said his complaints to the city have been directed to private contractors doing long-term work on sidewalks in the past, and called on the city to do more to ensure anyone infringing on public space is ensuring all Winnipeggers can safely get around barriers.

“That’s a cop out,” he said. “If it’s something happening that’s been authorized by the city and is being paid for by the city, I think they have some obligation to put restrictions or to make contractors follow certain guidelines and make situations more accessible.”

The city’s manual for temporary traffic control on city streets says that when there is no active work happening on a sidewalk in a work zone, it should be “restored to a point where it is safe and traversable using a sturdy, non-slip material,” but Mankewich said he’s been forced to bump down onto the curb and attempt to detour multiple times in the past.

It can be time consuming at best, but dangerous for him at worst, citing the possibility of flipping his wheelchair as a possible risk of taking an unsafe detour.

“Honestly, I think (the city) just doesn’t care,” he said. “To get the city to improve anything on accessibility, you basically have to either take them to court, or file a complaint with the Human Rights body — they very rarely proactively are willing to remove accessibility barriers, it’s just something that’s entrenched in the city.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press.

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