Weeds are a common sight in the cracks between sidewalks – but on two streets in downtown Kitchener, something much bigger is sprouting up.

Massive hydro poles have been erected on Charles and Duke streets.

In some cases, the poles sit in the middle of the sidewalk, coming as a shock to those nearby.

“I looked outside, and all of a sudden there was this giant pole outside our front door,” Caitlin Quarry, who works at tech company Thalmic Labs, recalls.

Mandy Brouse had her own close encounter with one of the Charles Street poles.

“I actually almost walked into one when I was walking to get my coffee this morning,” she says.

While the poles make for a startling site, they’re actually one of the first signs of light rail transit construction in the downtown.

As they do in most of the neighbourhood, power lines on Charles and Duke run under the road.

But the roads are being opened up for LRT construction, and that means the current underground system has to be replaced before it gets buried.

“We’re trying to do as much of the work as we can in advance, but some of the final stages of the work will have to wait until the LRT construction work is done in that area,” says Jerry Van Ooteghem, president of Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro.

So while the poles are temporary, Van Ooteghem says, ‘temporary’ in this case likely means at least two years.

After that, underground work for LRT will be done, power lines will be back underground, and the poles will come down.

As for why some of the poles seem to be haphazardly placed in sidewalks, Van Ooteghem says it was sometimes difficult to find any space at all.

The poles had to be close enough to buildings to run overhead wires, but away from driveways – and away from existing underground utilities.

“It’s really tight quarters down there,” Van Ooteghem says.

“Logistically it’s a bit of a challenge, but we’ll work with everybody down there to do the best job we can.”

Quarry says she’s understanding of why the work has to be done and why the poles are necessary, but wishes another location could have been found.

“It’s not the most scenic thing in the world,” she says.

More work is expected to take place on Charles, Duke and other affected streets, Van Ooteghem says, including the laying of asphalt to make the sidewalks more traversable.

In total, Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro expects to spend about $14.5 million on LRT-related work over a four-year period that began in early 2013.