Never mind avoiding stepping on cracks in the sidewalk — look out for the hydro covers!
As many Torontonians are aware, Hydro Toronto has a problem on their hands: old and decaying wires were coming into contact with winter moisture, and on two occasions those wires made contact with sidewalk covers that ended up shocking a dog and young child. Hydro Toronto deployed their entire outdoor workforce across the city this week to check every single sidewalk cover for safety reasons (hats off to them for taking the issue so seriously).
On my walk into Spacing’s office (on Spadina between King and Dundas) I’ve noticed that almost every hydro cover was painted red to indicate which covers had been checked by a crew. This may be the biggest and most co-ordinated sidewalk graffiti event in Toronto’s history. The Star’s Christopher Hume wrote about this topic today as well.
For those of you who aren’t sure whether to step on these covers I say, “if it’s red, go ahead — if it’s brown, step around.”
It also reminded me of an article in Spacing’s public art issue (#5, Winter 2006), written by Liz Worth, about a unique and subtle public art project: someone was painting random bits and pieces of Toronto infrastructure (gas metres, bricks, metal handles on utility poles, knobs on fire hydrants, etc etc etc) in a light blue colour. It’s a charming intervention for those of us who like to look at details on the streetscape as we go about our daily activities. You can still see blue painted bits all over the downtown core.
photos by Matthew Blackett
10 comments
I do wish they’d be a bit neater about it — paint the whole thing red, not just a splotch.
Also, it’s been bothering me that it took a child to get zapped before Hydro acted — the dogs that were electrocuted to death before and after xmas didn’t seem to matter so much.
Was the child okay?
Yes, the paint is a bit too messy for my liking.
The child was ok. You could imagine the firestorm (rightly so) had the child died.
Some dogs were ok, but two died. Was the talk of dog owners, for sure. Keep away from anything Toronto Hydro.
In some locations they seem to be painted red entirely, and others just have splotches. Not to worry, though – isn’t the plan to go back and replace them with non-conductive covers?
Re: Shawn
I’m actually surprised that there isn’t some kind of lawsuit on this. If I had a dog, and it got electrocuted, I would definitely consider getting a lawyer.
The fact that it took 6 months, multiple pets, and finally children for them to act simply adds $$$ to any settlement.
It’s great to see how fast Toronto Hydro reacted to this and started to fix the problem. It makes you wonder if TH was a private company whether they would have reacted so quickly or whether they would have been driven by a liability analysis drawn up by their tort lawyers.
I was hoping this meant they’d painted all the covers to make them more visible. I think I’ll pass on “If it’s red, go ahead” and wait for the new covers to be put in place.
I think Shawn is being a bit hard on Hydro – it seems to me that they are taking this very seriously and are working hard and fast to solve the problem. I also think it’s a bit perfectionist to expect the covers to be perfectly painted too, the red paint is simply to show that that hand-well has been inspected and the paint will wear off before long anyway – hopefully not before the snow melts and they can catch any they missed.
Though it’s probably a good idea to replace the metal covers with new non-conducting ones I just hope they can withstand the traffic without breaking – I don’t want to fall into an open hand-well (perhaps they would then be called foot-wells?)
Let’s put non-conductive covers over the wells so that the deteriorating wiring doesn’t shock anyone, but not fix the wiring … that was the original Toronto Hydro plan. I hope they’re planning on fixing any and all defective wiring, or else it’s just sweeping the problem under a non-conductive rug.
We’re going at it three ways. First, mobile sweeps on every city street using trucks that detect contact voltage from a distance. Crews repair or de-energize these problems immediately upon detection. Second, suspension of normal operations of the company while we inspect and rehabilitate every handwell in the city. This program is underway and will be completed in several weeks. Third, retrofitting the handwells with a resin/fibreglass model over time. We’ll be testing various types for strength and durability.
Blair Peberdy
Vice President
Toronto Hydro Corporation