February 2, 2010

IAN BLAIR

Premier Dalton McGuinty addressed the Ontario Road Builders’ convention in Toronto Monday.

Ontario Road Builders’ Association convention

Ministry of Transportation working with biggest road-building budget in its history

PETER KENTER

correspondent

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is operating under the biggest road-building budget in its history — and there’s more to come. That was the message delivered by representatives of the ministry at the annual meeting of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association in Toronto on Tuesday.

“When we look at the 2009-2010 actual construction budget of around $1.8 billion as compared to what we spent in 2003-2004 which was $688 million, it’s clear that there’s been a major significant increase in investment in our highways and bridges,” said MTO deputy minister Bruce McCuaig.

Steve Cripps, director of MTO’s Investment Strategies Branch, noted that increases in construction costs, while still exceeding the consumer price index, have levelled off.

“That’s allowed us to put more work on the street to look after infrastructure,” he said.

Looking ahead to the period from 2009 to 2013, Cripps says the province will see 991 lane/kilometres of new and expanded highways, 112 new bridges, 3125 centre line/kilometres of repaired highways and 539 repaired and rehabilitated bridges.

“We’ll see additional expansion of those numbers as new projects are announced,” said Cripps. “We’re anticipating 41 early calls from January to March 2010. It’s a very positive year for infrastructure.”

MTO will continue to offer a broad mix of small, medium and large contracts, not only to take advantage of the various talents offered by the province’s roadbuilders, but to ensure that contracts remain open to a broad range of bidders.

MTO will place a greater emphasis on performance-based contracts and on risk transfer in 2010, says Brian Gaston, assistant deputy minister with MTO’s Provincial Highways Management Division.

“Transferring some of the risk is a big issue,” says Gaston. “A great deal of research has gone into establishing the guiding principles that risk is best allocated to the party best capable of managing that risk — those who know how to build roads and to build them properly.”

Gaston says that MTO will continue to move toward performance-based contracts, which will de-emphasize day-to day oversight, while emphasizing the performance of the finished project during the warranty period.

That framework will allow contractors greater independence in employing innovative construction techniques and materials to achieve performance objectives.

“We’ve used minimum oversight on about 40 contracts in the past two years using the three-year warranty,” says Gaston. “The initial results are encouraging.”

While MTO has built performance-based standards into smaller design-build projects, that effort will be ramped up toward summer with performance-based standard being developed for large projects as well.

Gaston also notes that construction on the Windsor-Essex Corridor highway project, which will commence in 2011, will represent the first highway project to be delivered using Ontario’s Alternative Financing and Procurement system (AFTP), under the auspices of Infrastructure Ontario.

“A team will be selected for that project later this year,” he says.

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