Item - 2022.IE28.13

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee:

1. Requested Transportation Services to report to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee in the first quarter of 2023 on the ditches and ditch culvert repair and maintenance program, and to identify opportunities and resources required to meet service demands in a reasonable time frame and to reach a state of good repair.

The City of Toronto has many unique neighbourhoods and different physical attributes to the design of its streets and public infrastructure. Many of these features are products of the era in which they were built. Most of Etobicoke Centre, Ward 2, was developed in the post-World War II decades, and features many streets of detached homes on rural-cross section roads. These particular streets have ditches and soft shoulders, instead of curbs, gutters and continuous storms sewers, which are found in the earlier and later eras.

While ditches are excellent performers when it comes to capturing and conveying storm water, and offer water-absorbing green infrastructure, they also must be maintained just like other municipal infrastructure. Over time ditch profiles erode, sloped earth changes, and culvert crossing pipes need to be serviced and replaced. While this work is not necessarily complex, it is essential to ensuring that storm water is properly drained and that roads are safely maintained and hazards avoided.

It should be no surprise that with such a large amount of public space dedicated to ditched roadways, demands for service to this City infrastructure are high. The budget and program for this work is challenged to maintain a state of good repair, and this manifests in service repair timelines which can be one or two years to replace a culvert pipe or to reshape the earth to promote drainage and avoid ponding or icy conditions.

Photographic examples of a ditch and culvert in urgent need of repair has been attached below. The resident that reported this issue has been informed that the wait time for the service is 18 to 24 months.

(See Images),
in the Summary section of the letter dated
March 15, 2022 from the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Ward 2

I am writing to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee to request a report from Transportation Services to detail the current available resources for the maintenance and repair of ditches and ditch culverts, and to articulate the resources required to accelerate the state of good repair and reduce service backlogs and wait times for residents.