Burnaby resident Nia Furtado has been worried about the sidewalks along Rumble Street for nearly a decade.

The sidewalks in the area are often impassable after it rains, according to Furtado, who lives between Patterson and Joffre avenues.

"It was the first winter after I moved in that I realized how bad the sidewalks really were," she said. "I called the city a few times."

Furtado moved to the area and noticed water puddling in front of her home and freezing over during the winter.

"It was like an ice rink," she said.

He mother fell, and Furtado contacted the City of Burnaby again. After that, a catch for water was installed in the gravel shoulder of the road in front of her home, to keep water from flowing down toward the sunken sidewalk.

But the problem is prevalent throughout the whole neighbourhood, she said.

"These sidewalks were built back in the '50s," Furtado explained, adding, "they just don't work now."

Traffic increases annually, she said, and there are three schools on Rumble Street, with two others nearby.

After it rains, pedestrians walking on the south side of Rumble Street have to walk on the busy street to avoid large puddles, flooding and in the winter, ice, she said.

Traffic turning from Boundary Road and Patterson Avenue often speeds through the area, with some cars ignoring the school zone speed limits, she said.

While increasing traffic is an issue, Furtado said it could be manageable.

"We aren't saying, make it go away," she said of the traffic. "We're just saying, make it safer for everyone involved."

Furtado said she is afraid someone will be hurt or killed if pedestrian problems in the area aren't addressed soon.

She has witnessed a number of accidents, she said, including one last June where a car went into the oncoming traffic lane and hit a minivan, then went through a fence and hit a house.

The accident occurred near Suncrest Elementary, where students cross the street, she said, adding it was luckily on a Saturday.

In 2010, Furtado and many of her neighbours began expressing their concerns to the city in writing, she said, adding that they submitted a petition with 120 to 130 names of Rumble Street resident and parents of Suncrest Elementary students.

City staff told residents that upgrades to Rumble Street were included in the capital construction program for 2013 to 2014, she said.

But last April, Furtado said when she called city hall, she was told the project had been bumped to 2016 to 2018.

"That's not acceptable," she said. "It's just getting worse every year."

The city's director of engineering, Barry Davis, confirmed the upgrades are scheduled in the 2016 to 2018 budget but couldn't say why the project was moved from the 2013 to 2014 budget, as he has only recently taken over as director.

"Plans of course do get reprioritized due to availability issues, such as funding availability, and sometimes there are other priorities that happen to change things," he said. "In this particular circumstance, I don't know what would've dropped it from 2013/2014, but it is still in the plan."

The budget is reviewed annually, but Davis said he didn't see anything that would change the timeline for the project again at this point in time. Eroding sidewalks are repaired through capital roadworks projects, as in this case; redevelopment; and cost-sharing LASPs -local area service programs - between residents and the city, he said.

The city regularly inspects local sidewalks to ensure they're maintained and repaired as necessary, he added