The city has ongoing problems with rocks falling from the escarpment. Now a new study says there are seven locations where the danger needs the fastest attention.

A new report from consultants Golder Associations says seven spots should be a "maintenance priority" – enough that the city should be turning its annual rock maintenance attention there.

The locations are as follows:

Queen Street Hill/Beckett Drive.

Sherman Access East and West.

Sherman Cut.

Jolley Cut.

Wilson Street.

New Mountain Road.

Dewitt Road.

The city spends $300,000 in an average year to guard against rock falls. The most common method is scaling, which is the process of manually removing loose rocks. The city also installs mesh to catch tumbling rocks, and other measures.

Rock falls happen because the escarpment face is deteriorating. Fissures occur, says a city report, and make the escarpment vulnerable to the freeze-thaw cycle. Groundwater seepage causes erosion too.

In recent years, rock falls have been a regular occurrence, costing the city anywhere from $25,000 to $500,000 to clean up the mess. Recent rock falls include the Claremont, Kenilworth and Sherman East accesses, and Sydenham Road.

So the city hired Golder Associates last year to take stock of future rock falls. The consultant looked at rock slopes and mapped where there was seepage and other potential hazards.

Here are some other highlights of the presentation: