THUNDER BAY — It took vandals just two days to deface the freshly-painted pedestrian underpass between Simpson Street and the residential area east of the CPR tracks.
Brian Kral, the city's acting roads manager, says "it's very frustrating" for the city to have to undertake repairs after investing $90,000 in upgrading the tunnel, including a special type of anti-graffiti paint and new lighting.
"It took about 48 hours to put an extensive amount of graffiti on the walls," Kral said in an interview Monday with Tbnewswatch.
Ironically, someone who tried to cover the graffiti have actually made the city's task more difficult.
The fix-up done in June included paint that is easier to clean,
"We had an incident where there was an attempt to paint over the graffiti, and this is causing us grief because now we have to remove that paint and re-apply the special paint," Kral said.
He said the city is encouraged that somebody tried to help, but it's important that city workers be given the time "to get in there and do a proper job of restoring the structure."
Kral estimates it will take two days to complete the work, however the underpass should remain open while it's being done.
