Major construction on Bronson Avenue is part of the city’s overall plan to maintain and improve infrastructure across Ottawa.
Ottawa’s infrastructure may be old and deteriorating, but the vast majority is still in safe, useable condition, a new report says.
According to the Canada Infrastructure Report Card, released earlier this month by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Ottawa’s infrastructure is mostly in good condition, considering much of the city’s infrastructure is several decades old.
Ottawa-specific data from the report card was compiled and released in a report, the Comprehensive Asset Management Program.
That report outlined the current state of Ottawa infrastructure, including the state of Ottawa’s drinking water, transit and transportation.
While most of the city’s infrastructure has been classified as in good or fair condition, much of it still needs to be replaced or repaired as part of regularly scheduled maintenance.
The public and media outcry over the sink hole caused by a sewer pipe collapse under Highway 174, near Orleans, combined with the traffic snarls caused by construction throughout the city, however, left many wondering about the state of the rest of the city.
David Lau, a structural engineering professor at Carleton University, explained why the city’s infrastructure may seem to be in a state of crisis.
He says that construction is always concentrated in the spring, summer, or fall.
“It’s not necessarily a reflection of the infrastructure failing," he says. "With the growth of population, with the growth of organization, with the growth of the city, many of the facilities are at the end of their capacity.”
Mayor Jim Watson says part of the problem is that the vast distance Ottawa’s infrastructure has to cover makes upkeep that much more expensive.
“Obviously we’re always going to be growing, but we need to have smart growth," he says. "The farther out we go, the more expensive (infrastructure maintenance) is."
Extreme failures like the 174 sink hole and water mains breaks last spring on Elgin Street and Merivale Road show the outcome of the gaps in the city's oversight before the CAMP infrastructure report was compiled.
Bob Palomondon, an Ottawa public policy consultant, says the new information will help the city upgrade outdated infrastructure before it fails.
“If it’s well-maintained you’re unlikely to get major occurrences like we had with the sink hole," he says.
"Things can break, but you don’t want them breaking with regularity to a point where it’s causing havoc for residents, and it’s costing more to fix had it been repaired properly in the first place.”
The plan for maintaining and replacing aging infrastructure will be discussed at a municipal meeting on Oct. 2. Questions remain about how the city's infrastructure replacement will be funded.