When a utility contractor digs a hole in a sidewalk and barricades it without making provisions for pedestrian safety, they’re in the wrong business. Anyone who regularly reads this column knows we detest the indifference of utility contractors to the public interest. The city has a lengthy list of rules that govern how utilities are allowed to carve into roads and sidewalks. The alternate route was for pedestrians to walk onto the boulevard, where the combination of foot traffic and daily rain had turned it into a mud pit. No doubt they’d have been on the sidewalk, and much safer, if it had not been closed.

Source: thestar May 15, 2019 19:52 UTC