THUNDER BAY -- Where the rubber meets the road, Thunder Bay's streets are better than most.
According to the Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative, 68 per cent of municipal roads are in "good" to "very good" condition, compared to a provincial average of 50 per cent.
"Our paving condtions compared to other municpialities compare quite favourably, based on these OMBI stats," said city engineer Mike Vogrig.
The result comes despite the city slipping behind its targets on improving road quality for the last five years.
In 2011, administration recommended spending $12 million per year to see city-wide improvements in road conditions.
Since that recommendation, it has spent only $9.4 million per year, enough Vogrig says, to maintain road quality.
Vogrig will measure the OMBI results against the rate of inflation and conduct modelling to determine whether the $12 million per year recommendation can be maintained through 2021.
"Over the years, our model gets better and better," Vogrig said.
"We’re looking at how long pavements are lasting. We have better costing for all our rehab options. It improves our level of confidence with the model we use so we’ll re-run the model every five years as we get these inspections to make determinations on what we should be spending.”
