‘It’s unsightly and a hazard’: Toronto’s Annex residents say road crews left behind mess

Residents who live in Toronto’s Annex community say for weeks they’ve been trying to get one large and several small piles of discarded road construction debris, scattered throughout their neighbourhood, cleaned up.

The biggest source of complaints is a large pile on the corner of Barton and Albany Avenues, an intersection directly next to St. Alban’s Park.  

“This garbage has been here since a project ended in July,” a resident, who asked not to be named, told Speakers Corner.

The pile, left behind after several streets were resurfaced, is full of discarded drainage pipes, metal scraps and containers labeled with strong warnings that if the material inside contacts skin, it can cause burns.

“Kids come by here and there should not be hazardous stuff just lying around. On top of that there’s a port-a-potty that stinks and is attracting several bugs,” they added.

The resident who reached out to Speakers Corner has been calling both 311 and councillor Dianne Saxe’s office for weeks to get the issue resolved.

“They said they would expedite it and have it dealt with immediately. It’s been over two weeks since that promise, and nothing has been done. I’m getting very frustrated, especially since there’s warning labels on some of this stuff,” they said.

The pile has also given some people the impression they can use it as their own personal dumping ground, tossing in household garbage and other items.

“It’s growing, people have started to put their own construction refuse, adding to the mess,” said the resident.

“It’s not just this corner, the workers left behind a mess in other areas as well.”

After not getting results from the city, the resident reached out to Speakers Corner.

We contacted city staff and less than 24 hours later, crews came to remove all of the debris. As for why it was left for so long, Russell Baker, Manager, Media Relations & Issues Management, City of Toronto said the contractor hired for the resurfacing project is responsible.

“This site is part of a larger local road resurfacing contract, where multiple roads in the area are being resurfaced by one contractor. Maintaining site cleanliness is a key condition in the City’s contracts, and in this instance, that condition was not met by the contractor,” he said.

He went on to say the city will be holding the contractor, who he did not name, accountable.

“A field instruction—a formal written document—was issued to the contractor, requiring immediate action to clean this and any surrounding sites that needed corrective action. That clean-up was completed. Issuing a field instruction is the first step in addressing issues such as this and this action will inform the overall Contractor Performance Evaluation for this project,” said Baker.

While residents are happy to finally see results, they say it should not have been this difficult.

“It’s frustrating that our multiple calls to the city and our elected representative went unanswered. I really will be taking this into consideration next time there’s a civic election,” said the resident.

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