THUNDER BAY – The city’s proposed budget would spend $3 million less on road work than last year, even as the annual dollar value estimated to be able to maintain the city’s road network has increased.
The city’s draft 2018 budget has allocated $7 million for road improvement funding, a decline $10.1 million from 2017 and well short of the $12 million recommended in the 2005 engineering asset management plan.
Kayla Dixon, the city’s director of engineering, said the planned $4.2 million rehabilitation of the Main Street Bridge has diverted capital funding away from roads.
“There has been a reduction in pavement funding this year and projects that are being brought forward,” Dixon said at a budget review meeting on Thursday night.
“That’s because we’ve had to roll some of that funding to cover the rehabilitation for the Main Street Bridge, which is a large capital project that is over the envelope we would normally spend in our bridges and culverts category.”
Dixon said the work on the bridge, which serves heavy loads, includes concrete work and rehabilitation of safety items on the bridge.
“As you continue to let that work lapse and defer it, it becomes more critical to the point where yes, you need a reconstruction of the bridge,” Dixon said. “At this point, we’re still looking at a rehabilitation, which is quite a bit less expensive than if we needed to replace that bridge. That’s why it’s critical we do this work now.”
Major pavement rehabilitation projects outlined in the proposed budget include $920,000 for a stretch of Victoria Avenue from Waterloo to Edward streets, $820,000 for Court Street between Egan and Gibson streets, $700,000 on Dawson Road from Hazelwood to Hunter roads and $500,000 for a section of Winnipeg Avenue between Veverly and Inchiquin streets.
On Monday, council received a report from administration detailing the amount required to maintain the city’s paved road network had increased to $13 million.
The most recent inspection of the condition of the city’s road network, which was conducted in 2015, found 4.2 per cent of roads had reached a state where they would need reconstruction, which is about three times more expensive than rehabilitation. In 2000, only 0.2 per cent of roads landed in that category.
“This indicates that on a yearly basis, not enough dollars are spent in the rehabilitation category, allowing roads to deteriorate past the point where rehabilitation is an option,” the report reads.
Coun. Rebecca Johnson asked whether the $7 million would be sufficient to meet this year’s needs.
“We’re never finished fixing up the pavement, I understand that,” Johnson said. “At the same point in time, to be down from what our plan was … we’re $5 million down from that so I need to have an explanation of where we’re going with that.”
Dixon said the projects on the books for this year are priority projects that were identified through the pavement management system for rehabilitation to improve the lifecycle of the roads.
“Certainly, if we had additional funds we could find additional projects but at this point we’re not seeing specific roads where I would say we need absolutely have to do this road and we can’t,” Dixon said.
