May 28^th working Committee of Whole was devoted to our road, bridges & culverts infrastructure. Not very exciting topic in itself but of importance given the financial impact.  For roads estimated capital needs are $30 million over next 10 years with 2/3 required “now.”  In same period $8 million required for bridges & culverts with $2 million required “now.”

How can the project list be so high?  In addition to work not being funded earlier, there is simply the reality that King’s road network is big.  King has 300 km of roads for which we are responsible of which 166 km are asphalted, 90 km are gravel with the remainder being surface treated.  King has 20 bridges and 58 culverts.

Given the complexity of the network and its varying conditions we need a Transportation Master plan; our current practice of deciding at budget time where to spend our capital dollars the next year is totally inadequate.  Such a master plan in combination with the plan to create a reserve strategy will move us forward considerably in managing King more effectively.  And, that Master plan process will cause us to look at the very tough question of road ownership.  As someone who believes that maintaining ownership is extremely important I need to understand what the economics of such; and if we want to maintain ownership we need to build a plan for the financial capability of doing so.

If you are interested in learning more about the process of assessing roads, bridges and culverts you can find two informative presentations at the King website. Click here and go to the bottom of the page.