December 15, 2009

Ontario cities need province’s help with bridge management

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

Recommendations from Ontario’s auditor general for municipalities to receive improved funding for municipal bridges and to adopt better asset management practices are crucial, says the Ontario Road Builders’ Association.

Jim McCarter, auditor general for Ontario, included in his 2009 report an audit of Ontario’s bridge maintenance and inspection.

Municipalities are responsible for over 12,000 bridges in Ontario and his audit was based on information from 73 municipalities representing approximately 7,300 bridges.

The average age of municipal bridges was 43 years and ranged from 12 to 100 years in age. Approximately 85 per cent that responded to the auditor’s survey indicated that they had a backlog of rehabilitation work to comply with their requirement to perform inspections every two years.

The urgency of the backlog varied, with 45 per cent of municipalities having a backlog of one to five years, 25 per cent between six to 10 years and 10 per cent over 10 years.

“Some municipalities do not have the capital budget or the ability to do the repairs on a bridge in one year; for some municipalities it is a five to seven-year plan,” said Karen Renkema, government relations director, ORBA.

“The report clearly shows there is not enough money for some municipalities to be able to take care of some of these critical bridge repairs.”

The auditor general recommended that the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and municipalities should work together to: review practices in other large provinces and U.S. states with respect to oversight of municipal responsibilities for bridge maintenance; ensure the condition of municipal bridges is consistently assessed every two years as required and publicly reported; review MTO’s funding arrangement with municipalities to ensure funds provided are effective for proper maintenance and rehabilitation of bridges and promote good asset-management practices.

The need for improved asset management practices has been an issue ORBA has advocated for previously, noted Renkema.

The need for municipalities to better track and be better equipped to do so for the planned management of their infrastructure is important.

“It stresses the need for the provincial government to have a little more control on how they deliver their money,” she explained. “We have suggested that it is time for the provincial government to require that municipalities have an asset management plan in place if they are going to get any kind of funding from the government for infrastructure. This will clearly illustrate where the greatest need is.”

Expanding the use of the Ontario Good Roads Association’s Municipal DataWorks program, which some municipalities currently use voluntarily to help manage their assets, is a readily available solution to help improve asset management, said Renkema.

In response to the auditor general’s recommendations, MTO said it will continue to work with municipalities to develop best practices for roads and bridges, focusing on development of an inventory of assets, classification of roads, and a review of how to manage “these critical pieces of infrastructure.”

The province and municipalities are jointly examining options around responsibilities and funding arrangements for roads and bridges, added MTO.

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