140 Business View - December 2014
through similar services provided to a handful of neigh-
boring communities.
The county’s roster of roads also has 112 large bridges
– including Trent River crossings and railway company
overpasses – many of which occupy prime real estate
on Pannu’s priority list.
“The condition of the infrastructure is constantly dete-
riorating and we have been very vigorously trying to ad-
dress such concerns over the last 10 years,” he said.
“The county, for a period leading up to 2002, did not
direct significant focus to its transportation infrastruc-
ture. The funds available were such that we were able
to, perhaps, resurface every kilometer of the road ev-
ery 250 years, and we know that roads don’t last 250
years.
“Over the last 10 years, our council has understood
the current needs very well and has been very support-
ive of our transportation infrastructure requirements.
With council’s support and with help from some of the
high-level government funding that has been made
available over the years, we’ve been able to bring the
rate of repair down to about 40-45 years. Our target is
to bring it down even further, to every 20 years.”
The majority of area bridges were built in the late
1950s and early 1960s, which means at least 50 per-
cent of them are 50 plus years old and in need of reha-
bilitation. The county’s target roadway adequacy rate
is 70 percent, but the current number, Pannu said, sits
closer to 55 or 60 percent.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say our bridges are in aver-
age condition,” he said. “We’re not in a poor condition,
but we’re also not where we’d like to be. Just to main-
tain our infrastructure, for roads, we need about $11
million annually. This year, our program was about $8
million, so we’re still about 30 percent short of where
we’d like to be, and that does not include any exten-
sions or service expansion needs.”
PUBLIC SECTOR
