Latest news with #PublicWorks
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Humpback whale washes ashore in Long Beach Township
LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP — A dead humpback whale washed ashore at the 130th Street beach in the Beach Haven Terrace section on Friday morning, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. The stranding center's stranding coordinator responded to the scene about 7 a.m. and the 'heavily decomposed' remains were moved to the municipal Department of Public Works yard to be examined by staff from the center, according to a statement from the center. More NJ Shore news: Asbury Park lifeguard impaled by umbrella is expected to make full recovery The examination determined that the animal was a female, measuring 29½-feet in length. The carcass was in the advanced stages of decomposition and therefore no longer viable for further biological sampling. Based on photographs, this whale was identified as the same whale that was first observed deceased and floating approximately 3½ miles off of Harvey Cedars on Monday. As disposal of a whale carcass is the responsibility of the property owner, which is Long Beach Township, and officials opted to bury the remains at the public works yard on Long Beach Boulevard in Beach Haven Terrace. In addition to the Public Works Department, the Long Beach Township Police Department, its municipal Beach Patrol, the New Jersey Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement, all provided assistance at the scene. Contact Asbury Park Press reporter Erik Larsen at elarsen@ This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Humpback whale washes ashore on Long Beach Island NJ
CTV News
10 hours ago
- Automotive
- CTV News
‘It's a huge cost': City stops free courtesy tows during snow clearing operations
The city has stopped offering free courtesy tows for residents who don't move their vehicles during snow clearing. In an annual report on snow clearing operations, the city's public works department noted it did not provide any courtesy tows last year. It cited a significant drop in the number of calls to move vehicles impeding snow clearing. The policy has been in place since 2013. It gave a measure of grace to Winnipeggers who – unwittingly or otherwise – violated city residential parking bans. Rather than issuing a ticket and a tow to an impound lot, the city would provide free 'courtesy tows' and simply move the vehicle to another street at no cost to the owner. 'Although courtesy towing has been the practice, it is not a requirement by city bylaw or policy and has not shown significant operation efficiencies,' the report reads. 'Courtesy towing during residential parking bans is currently not planned to resume.' That's welcome news to Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West), the chair of the public works committee. 'It's a huge cost. Why should taxpayers who actually abide by the rules be paying… that for people that aren't adhering to the rules?' she told reporters Thursday. Lukes has pushed against the practice, noting in 2021 alone, courtesy tows cost the city more than $930,000. She said with no courtesy tows last year, those who don't move their vehicles would receive a ticket and crews would have to plow around them. 'Maybe what we do is we increase the fee for the ticket if you don't move your vehicle, because it's really important in a winter city to move your vehicle so we can clean the streets,' she said. Lukes said increased ticket fees would be discussed at the upcoming committee meeting on July 3. Last year the city went $14.4 million over its snow clearing budget of $40.5 million. This year, the city has budgeted $45.7 million. According to the public works department, an average year of snow clearing costs $53.1 million but can range as low as $41 million or as high as $91.5 million.
CBS News
21 hours ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Campbells Run Road closes due to flash flooding, timetable to reopen unclear
Campbells Run Road is shut down after getting hit hard from Thursday evening's storms, and now crews are working to get it back open. The heavily-traveled road took a major hit when a freshly-paved portion was damaged in the flash flooding, completely overtaking the road with water. The road was forced closed between Baldwin Road and Keiners Lane, and as of 6:30 a.m., there's no timeline for when it will reopen, but crews have begun their repair process. Businesses in the area, as well as drivers in the area, were flooded out on Thursday evening. Allegheny County Public Works officials said the storm undermined a section of the road that had been paved earlier in the day, and the debris was left behind because of the storm. This morning, crews are expected to begin milling and repaving after overnight crews worked to remove the debris. The timetable for when the road will reopen is unclear.
CBS News
a day ago
- CBS News
Vandals in St. Paul repeatedly tossing sewer grates in storm drains, public works department says
The St. Paul Public Works Department says vandals have been picking up sewer grates and tossing them down storm drains, leaving open holes in the street. More than 150 catch basins across St. Paul have been affected since the beginning of the month in acts of vandalism the city is calling "unusual." Several neighborhoods have been targeted in the vandalism, including West Side, Frogtown, Summit Hill, Downtown and the East Side. The St. Paul Public Works Department says the grates weigh over 150 pounds and removing them is illegal. "This malicious behavior is unacceptable and extremely dangerous to everyone, including drivers, walkers, and bikers," St. Public Works Director Sean Kershaw said. The St. Paul Public Works Department has received multiple reports of storm drain sewer grates being removed and then dropped the into the storm drains. St. Paul Public Works Department The public is being asked to keep an eye on neighborhood storm drains this summer. To report missing grates or other storm drain damage, people can call Public Works Sewer Maintenance at 651-266-9850 during weekday business hours. After hours or on the weekends, people are asked to call 651-266-9700 and leave a detailed message about the location. Residents who have a missing or damaged storm drain in their neighborhood are encouraged to check any security camera footage to see if they caught the individuals removing the grates, and provide the footage to the police department if they do. Anyone who sees someone actively removing a storm drain gate should call 911 to report the incident to the police department. The public works department says it is working to replace storm drains as quickly as possible.
CBC
a day ago
- Politics
- CBC
Councillor pushes Ottawa ring road instead of 6th bridge
A city councillor says Ottawa needs a southern ring road to relieve congestion on the Queensway — instead of a controversial bridge over Kettle Island. Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney floated the idea at Thursday's public works and infrastructure committee meeting as councillors debated updates to the transportation master plan, a guiding document setting out infrastructure priorities for the coming decades. Tierney noted that Highway 417 is currently the only major east-west route for interprovincial and regional traffic, including trucks, which should be rerouted south of the urban core. He made a motion, which passed by a vote of 9-2, urging all levels of government to pursue a "full and fair evaluation" of a southern ring road. The motion will now go to council for a final vote. Tierney said it sends a clear message. "We're saying this is really important to us," he said. "If the province is looking for some guidance for where they would like to provide some money to the city ... we've just indicated, it's this — it's not an interprovincial bridge." Feds promised 6th bridge The federal government pledged in January to build a sixth bridge spanning the Ottawa River over Kettle Island. That plan would direct truck traffic onto the Aviation Parkway, which runs through Tierney's ward. "Three billion dollars for an interprovincial bridge, we have no interest in that," Tierney said. "We have a bigger issue where all of our traffic is going through downtown and we see highway closures that really affect people's lives right now. He said the time is right to push for the ring road, which the provincial government committed to exploring in a 2022 transportation plan for eastern Ontario. "We have to start looking at this as an option," Tierney said. "I've spoken to the minister provincially, as well as our mayor, and I think we have an opportunity here to at least get this on the vision board about what we want to do in the future." Orléans West-Innes Coun. Laura Dudas supported Tierney's motion. She said another bridge won't solve Ottawa's traffic woes, since it would still dump trucks onto the 417 or the 174. "I fully support the idea of looking at this. It would cost, probably, a lot, and I don't think it would be a burden that our municipal taxpayers would have to bear. It would have to be a provincial or federal burden," she said. "But I do think it's a viable option to consider." But Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster questioned the idea. She worried that either option — a bridge or a ring road — would simply sink money into promoting auto use instead of transit. "I just think the goal should be getting people out of cars," she said. Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower warned that Tierney's motion could send a confusing message to higher levels of government and distract from the city's other funding requests, especially for transit. "I just feel like this ring road has come out of nowhere today," he said. Committee tweaks list of projects favoured for funding Despite the vote, the motion won't add the ring road to the city's transportation master plan, which the committee voted for on Thursday. The plan lays out $4.5 billion in transit infrastructure and $2.8 billion for roads that the city needs to keep up with population and employment growth to 2046. But city staff admit that number isn't affordable, so the plan includes a list of priority projects that are more likely to get built. That includes $2.3 billion in transit projects and $1.6 billion for roads, including widening and new links to growing communities. The expansion of the light rail system to Barrhaven and Kanata is also in the plan, with an estimated price tag of $8.3 billion, though the city is counting on upper levels of government to pay for it. The top-priority projects on the list include transitways on Baseline Road and through southern Orléans. Major road expansions in Orléans and Stittsville are also on the priority list, as well as a realignment of Greenbank Road in Barrhaven. Tweaks to the plan Councillors mostly kept that list intact and sent it to council for a final vote, though there were a few tweaks. Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo successfully moved to redraw plans to widen Prince of Wales Drive, removing a section near Merivale Road from the priority list and adding a section north of Fallowfield. Lo also made a more controversial motion for a study that could change the alignment of the proposed LRT to Barrhaven. The tracks were originally set to run west of Woodroffe Avenue. But that would have required expropriating and demolishing low-income homes in Manor Village and Cheryl Gardens. In 2022, council changed the route to avoid that, running the tracks over Woodroffe Avenue at an added cost of $50 million. Lo's motion asked staff to evaluate going back to the original route. He said the new route is more complex, and noted that most of the low-income residents have already been forced out through renovictions. "The reason that pushed for the realignment is no longer there," he said. But Gower countered that even if the original residents are gone, returning to the original route would still cost homes. "Whether they're low income or moderate income, we're still going to be displacing people," Gower said. Lo's LRT motion failed 4-7.
