Boulevard and Pavement Cuts FAQ

Utilities, private contractors, and city forces make excavations either to repair existing plant or to install new infrastructure.

Street cut restoration work begins in spring once the frost has left the ground and continues until the ground freezes in the fall. If a street cut is initiated after June 1, the pavement restoration process may commence during the current construction season with completion of the boulevard restoration in the next construction season.

You can contact 311 to report the unsafe condition of the cut. However, if you received a notice from the City's Water and Waste Department when the excavation was made, contact 311 and advise them about the notice from Water and Waste.

There are stages of restoration for street cuts. It is likely that it is a temporary restoration. Permanent restoration will be scheduled at a later date.

Boulevard restorations and pavement restorations are completed by separate contractors. If an excavation encompasses both a paved area and a boulevard area, the paved area will be restored first and the boulevard restorations will be scheduled once all pavement restorations have been completed. There will be a delay between restorations of 6-12 months.

It is likely that the work was done by the City's Water and Waste Department to repair their infrastructure underneath your driveway. Any damages to your driveway will be the Water and Waste Department's responsibility to repair.

They may temporarily restore the cut depending on the season and carry out the permanent repair during the construction season. The repair limits will be set by the Water and Waste Department. Contact 311 for any additional information related to the driveway restoration.

If there are collateral damages on your boulevard, the restoration of your boulevard will be scheduled by the Public Works Department once the driveway has been permanently restored.

Where it is clearly evident that damages to grassed and/or paved areas are a result of the excavation, the limits of the restoration may be expanded to include the damaged area.

The limits of the restoration are normally marked with paint prior to restoration commencing.

The corporations that order the excavations pay for excavation restorations, therefore damages on City property that existed prior to the excavation are not considered as part of the restoration.

No. Although we sympathize with your situation, completing a restoration out of the scheduled order results in lengthy delays of all other scheduled restorations. If you cannot wait to have your restoration completed, contact 311 to be referred to administrative personnel to discuss self-restoration options.

If you know who made the excavation or what utility the excavation was made for, you can contact them directly. If you know that the excavation was made by City forces for water or sewer works you should contact the Water and Waste Department at 311.

If work on the excavation has not commenced by a date previously given contact 311. If the pavement restoration work has been completed but the sod remains to be placed, be advised that boulevard restoration is typically completed 6-12 months after all pavement has been restored. Patience in these circumstances is appreciated.

The restoration of most boulevards is a three-step process:

1. The excavation is trimmed to a uniform shape (normally rectangular), and backfill material is removed or applied to achieve proper grade.
2. The excavated area is filled with topsoil.
3. The area has sod applied. Note: this may follow step 2 by one to two weeks as it is common practice to perform the sod operation only when there are a large number of excavations ready for the sod.

Where the condition of the existing boulevard surrounding the excavation is poor, topsoil and seeding may be considered as an acceptable method of completing the restoration.

All areas where sod has been placed or which have been seeded are subject to a 30-day maintenance period. At the end of the maintenance period the City inspects the restorations for acceptance. Observed deficiencies are corrected at the expense of the contractor and remain the responsibility of the contractor until the deficiencies have been corrected to the satisfaction of the City.

The sod used to restore the excavation can be composed of different blends of cultivars than the existing surrounding boulevard. Over time this will become less apparent and the new sod will gradually blend in.

Please keep in mind that although we strive to provide high quality restorations, it is extremely difficult to have the restoration look similar to the surrounding area immediately, especially if your boulevard is very well manicured and groomed. Generally, it can take several months of growth for the new turf to fully establish itself and mature.

You can contact 311 to advise of a settled restoration.

Directly after the sod has been placed the contractor is responsible to maintain the street cut restoration by watering and mowing as required to establish healthy root and turf growth to the satisfaction of the City, normally this is 30 days. Please refrain from mowing the sod until 30 days after placement to let the root system establish. Standard boulevard maintenance practice is resumed after the sod has been established.