Toronto is lax about work done by utilities. We all pay for it with poorly patched roads and sidewalks that are dangerous

If there’s one place where Toronto can definitely do better, it’s under our feet and the wheels of our cars.

Walking and driving feels bumpier than ever, due to utility cuts. Our roads and sidewalks are under constant attack by utility contractors that dig them up to get at wires and pipes buried below ground.

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But the city doesn’t put enough effort into ensuring that temporary patches to utility cuts meet its prescribed standard — basically, smooth and even with the surrounding surface — giving contractors a green light to cut corners.

So much essential infrastructure — water, sewer, electricity, natural gas, internet, cable TV — is buried, and the only way to service it is through holes carved into roads and sidewalks.

And what a toll it exacts. Many roads are a quilt-work of patches that mark the spots where incremental digging has slowly degraded the surface until it feels like a washboard to drive over. Sidewalks are also carved like a cake, the holes filled with asphalt that sinks or erodes at the edges until it creates a tripping hazard.

Then there’s the ongoing assault on new roads and sidewalks. Readers have often told me about a street that was dug into just months or even weeks after it was repaved, or freshly poured concrete that was excavated to repair utilities under a sidewalk.

It boils the blood of taxpayers. But it’s important to balance the benefits of services we rely on against damage to publicly owned roads and sidewalks by digging them up for repairs.

Federal legislation grants utilities as-of-right access beneath city streets. Municipalities can only deny access in the rarest of circumstances. Otherwise, utilities can do pretty much whatever they want in the subterranean space.

It’s not just a matter of lining up repairs or additions to buried pipes and wires with road or sidewalk resurfacing projects. The Toronto Public Utilities Coordinating Committee, which includes all private and public utilities that require underground access, was created many years ago, so that subterranean work can be planned and done before road resurfacing or the pouring of new sidewalks begin.

It has reduced damage to new roads and sidewalks, but has by no means eliminated it. When a utility needs to make emergency repairs to its below-ground “plant,” as they refer to it, the work must be done, even if the street above it was just resurfaced.

Before any digging — preplanned or emergency — can be done, utilities must apply for a utility cut permit from the city, which is compelled by federal legislation to issue it.

The number of permits, which are often for far more than one cut, issued in Toronto in recent years reveals the extent of the problem.

In 2019, the city issued 30,792 “full, short and emergency permits,” according to transportation services. In 2020, a total of 29,694 permits were issued, while 28,944 permits were issued in 2021. So far this year, more than 23,000 permits have been issued.

Every one of those cuts is temporarily patched by contractors working for utilities. When they’re issued a permit, the contractor agrees to ensure the patch continually meets the city standard until it is permanently patched, which can take up to two years. Permanent patching is done via contracts awarded by the city for all cuts in a specific area, with the costs billed back to the utilities.

So, how does Toronto ensure that temporary patches continually comply with city standards until a permanent patch is in place? It employs “utility cut examiners” to keep an eye on them and crack the whip when a patch fails to meet the standard.

A note last week from the city said that “transportation services have designated 20 positions for these inspections. However, there are a number of positions that are vacant and which are currently under recruitment.”

It did not specifically say how many positions are unfilled right now, but I suspect the actual number is far less than 20. A dozen years ago, there were only two examiners in each of Toronto’s four transportation districts.

Each examiner is responsible for overseeing thousands of patches, aside from any other duties that may be assigned to them, and dogging the utilities to ensure compliance.

When asked what else, if anything, the city does to ensure standards are met, the note said that “in addition to the inspections that are already being performed, the city is currently reviewing its staffing model and conducting a fee review with respect to the utility cut program.”

In other words, not much. It’s like winking at utility contractors that they can cut costs by using low-grade asphalt for temporary patches and not ensuring that they continue to meet the standard.

And we’re all paying for it.