Some sidewalks in London to take years to get repaired

CTV London: Sidewalk repairs likely to take years Permanent repairs to uneven or cracked sidewalks in London will likely take years due to a lack of funding. Gerry Dewan explains.

There’s a shortfall in transportation spending at city hall and that means sidewalks, roads and bridges are going unrepaired or will have temporary fixes.

A permanent repair could take not just months, but years.

Frank McKay and his wife Krys took concerns about their sidewalk to Matt Brown, the Ward 7 councillor.

"I was very surprised when I found out it could be as many as three or four years,” Brown says.

London commits $1 million a year to repair the approximately 1,500 kilometres of sidewalks, but it isn’t enough.

"This year we've gone out and identified around 4,000 areas where we have deficiencies,” says Edward Soldo, the city’s director of roads and transportation.

”We recognize there is a gap."

And some Londoners simply can’t get around on the sidewalks that are temporary repaired.

"If you think of where you've got the sidewalk that's lifted…there's still obviously an incline and if you're low vision or if you're using a mobility device of some kind, that still can cause a barrier,” says Mike Dawthorne, the chair of the city's accessibility advisory committee.

City staff are expected to have a report ready in the fall looking at all of the shortfalls for transportation spending and funding.