There’s no detouring around the gaps in funding for Bradford’s future road maintenance.
A report included as part of the Nov. 5 council meeting from Elise Ferro, the town’s new project manager of asset management, summed up the findings of a roads needs study from R.J. Burnside & Associates, which shows Bradford will need to spend roughly $64.2 million from 2025 to 2034 to maintain all 275 centreline-kilometres of roads currently under its care.
That’s about $16.9 million more than the roughly $47.3 million the town currently forecasts spending over that period, according to the report, which notes about $1.69 million would be needed each year to prevent the road network from “degrading.”
Those estimates are based on projected wear and tear, which Burnside expects will take the road network from an average overall condition of 83.56/100 to about 76.99/100, which is still considered satisfactory.
Their assessment of current conditions found that of the town’s roads, 54 per cent are good, 33 per cent are satisfactory, 11 per cent are fair, 1.27 per cent are poor and just .33 per cent are very poor.
Some of that overall positive condition was attributed to the town applying “relatively cost-effective routine, preventive and resurfacing treatments.” Burnside recommends continuing this in future and they estimate it will cost about $8.75 million over the next decade, including about $3.6 million for crack sealing and about $5.2 million for micro surfacing.
Burnside also identified four gravel road sections for the town to consider upgrading to hardtop, including:
- Line 4 from County Road 27 west to the municipal boundary — 1.05 km for $309,600
- Line 6 from County Road 27 west to the municipal boundary — 1.05 km for $300,300
- Spence Lane from Essa Street to Toronto Street — 0.15 km for $43,700
- Spence Lane from Church Street to Essa Street — 0.16 km for $44,500
Ward 3 Coun. Ben Verkaik asked about other segments based on the gravel roads conversion framework approved by committee of the whole this time last year, based on advice those upgrades could reduce the long-term costs of maintenance.
“Typically it doesn’t pay off to go hard surface,” said Tony Desroches, director of infrastructure services. “Due to budget sensitives, it’s assumed that all existing gravel roads will be maintained as gravel roads.”
Burnside’s report shows the 60-year lifecycle costs per kilometre to maintain an existing gravel road in good condition would be about $970,000, whereas the same lifecycle costs to convert to and maintain hardtop would be about $1.2 million.
“That’s not what the residents want to hear,” Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine remarked.
Desroches explained the four sections of gravel road highlighted in the report don’t even necessarily need upgrading to hard surface, but are the only ones that met the “bare-minimum criteria” for further investigation.
In her report, Ferro noted specific road improvements will be included in the town’s budget each year.
