City’s lengthy infrastructure backlog easing up
Five years into a plan to renew Medicine Hat’s civic infrastructure over three decades, planners say they are tamping down a backlog of work and are better prepared to switch priorities to either speed it up or keep costs down.
City officials told a council committee Wednesday that more money in budgets for replacement work — on top of regular maintenance — has led to more items crossed off the to-do, and new process to schedule construction should speed up the process.
“We were always playing catchup,” said municipal works general manager Dwight Brown.
“The intent is to get to the point where there is not a backlog, but we’re in a ‘maintain’ state, so we can do renewal before it gets to the critical stage.”
In 2012, the cost of bringing aging infrastructure up to standard was tagged at about $1 billion. At the same time, planners developed a 30-year timetable for replacing roads, pipes and other public works fixtures that would exceed their lifespans by 2042.
At that time, about onequarter of the city’s 930-kilometre road network was below standard, and onefifth of the 1,000 kilometres of pipe required work.
The plan included yearly increases to road, sewer and other replacement budgets, with the goal of paying more in early years to defray costs later on. Councillors also approved a dedicated one percent annual tax to address the gap. Many said Medicine Hat was ahead of other Canadian cities in addressing the problem.
“How many municipalities are out there saying they will spend the money to keep their infrastructure into the future,” asked Coun. Julie Friesen. “Some don’t have a hope.”
Committee members forwarded the report to be present to full council on Sept. 5.
Two computer systems that track the age and quality of public works should be up and running by the end of 2018. The goal is to better align schedules to replace, for example, underground pipes with road work to avoid multiple disruptions and lower budgets.
Replacement work has seen the sewer, water and storm pipe backlog lowered by about 10 per cent since 2012, and could see a further drop of 27 per cent by 2021.
More progress has been made on the road backlog, thanks largely to major projects on South Railway Street and downtown. Planned storm trunk work has created the most progress in that area.
The sidewalk backlog has been halved to $2 million over five years, thanks to dedicated funds and a move toward jacking and cutting uneven pavement.
All bridges, dams and major culverts are considered in good shape at present, as is the streetlight network.
About $12 million in airport runway work is proceeding this year thanks to a federal grant.
The current total estimated value for the city’s entire infrastructure inventory, including water and sewer plants, bridges and the airport is $6.6 billion. The water system alone was worth $2.54 billion, followed by sanitary sewers ($2.3 billion), transportation network ($1.27 billion) and storm sewers ($510 million).