Don Potter says pulling up to the back of his house isn’t worth the potential damage to his vehicle, thanks to a bunch of potholes that have turned his Thorncliffe back alley into a hazard.
“It's pretty rough” he says. “ I try to avoid it as much as I can and use the street.”
He says he’s complained to the city but was told it’s not a high priority.
It's a high priority for Potter, though.
“We pay for it,” says Potter. “ I think there should be more attention paid to it.”
Currently, the city has 3,000 'open service requests' around Calgary, meaning alleys and roads that need repair or maintenance.
It says that number is average for this time of year, adding that most of the work will be done between June and the end of October, though things could take longer this year, in part because of budget cuts.
“The city’s gravel repair program did take a $500,000 budget reduction and that will have an impact on our service,” says Chris McGeachy with the roads department. “Regardless of the budget cuts, we will go to every community every year.
"We typically try to get to the ones in the poorest condition first," he added.
McGeachy also says scheduling the repairs and sticking to that timeline is important.
“The equipment that we are working with is really big and that’s why we stress the importance of having a schedule," he said.
The cumbersome equipment means the roads deparatment finds it challenging to improvise, either.
"It's not like we can go back and forth in the city," he said. "We try to keep to the schedule.”
Still, he says heavy equipment can be redeployed if the road work is urgent.
He also says the more rain Calgary experiences in a summer, the longer the work may be delayed.
