Sinking into a sidewalk trap
THE FIXER
With the distracting devices that people are burying their noses in, it’s easy to stumble over a tripping hazard and go for a loop.
We were marching with our head down on the north side of Queens Quay a couple of weeks ago when we nearly walked into a pylon in front of the Westin Harbour Castle’s conference centre.
The pylon was on top of interlocking bricks in the sidewalk, between Bay and Yonge Sts., that has heaved and collapsed in the middle, creating a dandy tripping hazard.
Good thing they put something over it that pedestrians will see, we thought, while playing down our own inattention to the marker.
The pylon indicated the city was aware of the problem and would probably do something about it soon, or so we thought.
We were there again last Thursday and decided to check on it. The only change in the situation was the disappearance of the pylon. Many pylons tend to stray from the place where they’re needed. With nothing to warn people about the collapsed area, it would be too easy to stumble over it, especially at night. STATUS: Rob Burlie, area manager of road operations for transportation services, emailed to say a field investigator has been assigned to check it out and see that it is temporarily made safe.
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