Estimated $500 million backlog of Vancouver public sidewalk repairs | Daily Hive

Example of tree root growth damaging a sidewalk. (Simone Hogan/Shutterstock)

Over a two-year period, from 2023 to 2024, City of Vancouver inspectors walked every single pedestrian sidewalk and collected photos and detailed information on the condition of sidewalk defects.

Based on their assessment of about 2,200 km of public sidewalks across Vancouver, six per cent are in “very poor” condition, another six per cent are in “poor” condition, 11 per cent are in “fair” condition, 21 per cent are in “good condition,” and 46 per cent are in “very good” condition. The condition of the remaining 10 per cent is unknown due to “insufficient data.”

The combined 12 per cent of sidewalks in “very poor” and “poor” condition would need to be replaced — roughly 253 km of sidewalks that require a full rebuild to bring them up to an acceptable standard.

This is in addition to sidewalks in “fair” or “good” condition that may need minor fixes.

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Additionally, about 2,300 corners across Vancouver lack accessible curb ramps.

The numbers are troubling, especially considering that pedestrian infrastructure underpins not only active transportation but transportation as a whole — the default mode of transportation.

Currently, the municipal government has a Sidewalk Rehabilitation capital budget of $1.25 million annually, which enables a replacement of less than one km of sidewalk per year.

City staff estimate the total backlog of sidewalk repairs is over $500 million.

To accelerate the pace of sidewalk rehabilitation, the annual budget for such work would need to exponentially increase to $10 million per year.

Although the current budget is far from sufficient, City staff further state that the vast majority of new sidewalks across Vancouver are achieved by adjacent new building developments, when builders reconstruct the frontage, as well as underground utility works and other project-based capital programs.

Growing tree roots that raise, deform, and break sidewalks are the leading cause of sidewalk issues, impacting about 20 per cent or roughly 440 km of the public sidewalks. Tree roots are particularly the issue for sidewalks deemed to be in “very poor” or “poor condition.” The deformation of the sidewalks presents tripping hazards and accessibility issues for people using mobility devices.

However, City staff state that street trees planted more recently have mitigated this issue through new standards for soil volume, tree species selection, and streetscape design.

This is an important consideration, as the City now aims to intensify its efforts in tree planting to enhance Vancouver’s tree canopy coverage.

Earlier this spring, Vancouver City Council endorsed the Vancouver Park Board’s new more ambitious target of reaching a 30 per cent tree canopy target by 2050 — an increase from the previous 2011-created target of covering 22 per cent of the city with a canopy of branches and leafs of tree crowns, when viewed from above.

Based on a previous assessment, driven by previous planting efforts, the canopy coverage increased to 25 per cent in 2022 — up from 23 per cent in 2018 and 21 per cent in 2023. Over time, as the branches that form the canopy grow, so do the tree trunks and roots.

Park Board crews are responsible not only for the trees in park spaces but also for approximately 150,000 street trees.

Over the past six years, the municipal government received nearly 10,000 requests from residents and businesses for sidewalk repairs. It typically takes about a week to deploy crews to lay down temporary asphalt to reduce the tripping hazard as an interim solution. Recently, the City cleared its historical backlog of resident curb ramp requests and can now design and build new requested curb ramps within one year of receiving a request.

City staff also recently indicated that in order to properly maintain Vancouver’s painted road lines and crosswalks, the maintenance budget for such work would need to increase to $1.6 million annually — up from the current budget of $700,000 per year.

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