Toronto Hydro crews are working to make good on their boss's promise to solve the stray voltage problem once and for all.
Toronto Hydro spokesperson Karen Evans told ctvtoronto.ca that six crews, 36 workers in total, were out Saturday inspecting handwells -- although she didn't have any statistics on how much progress the crews made.
She admitted the process is something of a grind.
Workers have to go street by street, find the handwells, open them up and inspect them.
In some cases, that means clearing off "two feet of snow," she said.
Being older, many of the handwells are difficult to manually open.
Passers-by are also stopping to query workers about the process, Evans said, adding while the workers appreciate the interest, it's affecting their productivity.
The work will continue throughout the evening. On Monday, Toronto Hydro will stop all "non-essential work" and have 600 people in the field, she said.
On Friday, Toronto Hydro president and CEO Dave O'Brien told reports that stray voltage detection efforts would be stepped up following a report that some students had been mildly zapped.
That incident occurred Thursday in the Dundas and Sumach Street areas. Five students were in the group, with none seriously injured.
Jeramee Gagnon told CTV Toronto on Saturday he was taking his dog Tank out for a walk at Dundas and River Streets on Friday night when "he was kind of wandering off, then he stepped on the plate and just started yelping."
Toronto Hydro had already committed to fixing the stray voltage problem after two dogs' deaths since November and numerous lesser shockings of animals.
O'Brien announced the corporation would be spending $15 million to solve the problem, up from the $10 million originally allocated.
He said the operation would involve more than 600 employees and would go on a 24/7 basis until the problem is solved -- something that could take until the end of February.
O'Brien blames aging infrastructure for the problem.
Toronto Hydro said the inspections will radiate out from the downtown core, with the oldest equipment to be inspected first.
"The actual work on each handwell is about an hour long," Denise Atallah, a Toronto Hydro spokesperson, told CTV Toronto on Saturday. "The process is taking it out, removing the old, corroded equipment, putting in new equipment and then putting the gel cap over it."
Repaired handwells will be painted red.
Some Regent Park residents say it's about time the problem is taken seriously.
Kayla Lewis said she got a shock last year when walking to go tobogganing. "I stepped on the plate, and it shocked me and it hurt," she said.
A hotline has been set up to all people to report stray voltage incidents. The number is 416-222-3773.
With a report from CTV Toronto's James MacDonald
