Cherry Beach potholes prove to be a prickly problem: The Fixer

People who flock to Cherry Beach can absolutely count on one thing: Dozens of car-rattling potholes in the parking lots.

As reliable as the swallows of San Juan Capistrano, the potholes return every year, forcing drivers to inch their way through them to avoid damage to their vehicles.

Despite considerable efforts by the city’s parks department to keep them filled and find a permanent solution, not even paving the lots will solve the problem.

And you can blame it on Lake Ontario, which laps at the shore just a few metres away from the parking areas.

We wrote about the Cherry Beach potholes as far back as 2011, which a reader named David reminded us of when he sent us a note last week to report their return.

“I just took my dog there today (Sept. 12), four years after the Star article, and the potholes are bigger, worse and were never fixed,” said David.

“Why? This is a disgrace, a danger and it is preposterous that Toronto is obsessing on spending millions on Olympics but cannot even maintain a parking lot.”

We went there and found the usual maze of potholes in both the east and west parking lots, which are used year-round by dog walkers who enjoy the large off-leash area on the west side of the beach.

We’ve seen the parking lots in much worse shape than they were this week; the photo that accompanied our 2011 column illustrated water-filled holes big enough to swallow a compact car.

But the reader raises a good point: Since the potholes reappear every year in heavily used parking areas, shouldn’t the parks department bite the bullet on costs and pave them over?

STATUS: We asked that very question of James Dann, who’s in charge of waterfront parks. He is not a guy to let a problem go unfixed for long, so we figured there must be more to the story. Dann said the city partnered with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority on $250,000 worth of improvements, including trucking in 30 loads of shale, which they figured would reduce the pothole problem. But the water table is so high, due to the proximity of the lake, that it destabilizes the parking lot surfaces, which is why the potholes recur, he said. They even considered paving them, but figured it would be a waste of money. So all they can do is fill the holes, said Dann, adding it’ll be done shortly after Thanksgiving.