Infrastructure neglect leaves a costly legacy

The punitive P3 contract enforcing strict deadlines for Saskatoon’s rebuilt Traffic Bridge suggests the span will reopen less than a year from now.

Traffic will once again flow between the Nutana neighbourhood and downtown Saskatoon as it had for 103 years before the city’s first bridge built for automobiles closed for good in 2010.

What if city hall had decided to leave the condemned bridge where it was, though, in all its rotting, decrepit glory?

That would not have done much for crossriver access, but it could have served as a fitting monument to the failure of city administration and successive councils to properly maintain the bridge.

For the better part of eight years, the bridge has stood as an embarrassing reminder of the consequences of procrastination when it comes to adequately maintaining civic infrastructure and property.

The cool explosions that brought down several spans of the bridge likely helped residents forget the shameful legacy of neglect that led to the need for a new bridge.

That new bridge is estimated to cost $41.2 million — not the most expensive city project, but seen by many as the direct result of negligence.

The Traffic Bridge closed for the first time in 2005 when repairs extended its life for five more years. Maybe the city squeezed more life out of the bridge than it deserved, but it’s worth noting the city’s two rail bridges were both built within a year of the Traffic Bridge.

Nobody’s talking about shutting those bridges down due to a lack of structural integrity.

Saskatoon residents may not need a monument to municipal neglect, however, since they get constant reminders every time they drive the city’s roads.

The roads were featured in a 2011 city report that revealed city funding for road maintenance had fallen badly behind the cost needed to properly do the work since 2003. The need to play catch-up resulted in four years of a dedicated levy, which ends this year, to fund road repair.

So that’s the end of it, right? Not even close. And Saskatoon is not alone either.

In many cities in North America and around the world, maintaining infrastructure presents one of the greatest challenges as populations become increasingly urban.

While city hall may have failed in the past, credit the current administration with at least trying to avoid the same mistakes.

City hall officials have identified shortfalls in spending in key areas, including buses, parks and bridges. Yes, bridges.

We were warned about the disparity in spending on bridges about a year ago when administration suggested multiple years of a dedicated levy would help remedy the problem.

That levy was scheduled to start in 2018, but a little incident known as the provincial budget helped torpedo that schedule.

A sharp reduction in provincial revenues has left residents and city hall politicians and administrators staring down a 4.96 per cent property tax increase in 2018, just to maintain services at the same level as this year.

City hall’s financial gurus figured adding any other increase — no matter how well-intentioned or foresighted — would be too onerous for residents and too tough for politicians to sell. That’s in a city where property tax increases have averaged 5.3 per cent over the last five years.

City hall estimates that adequately maintaining bridges, buses and parks and park amenities would cost about $16.1 million more a year than is currently available. One solution suggested in a recent report could be a special levy of eight annual property tax increases of just over one per cent.

It’s understandable that the city hall brain trust wants to avoid overburdening taxpayers, but it also looks like the can is being kicked down the road. It’s not difficult to imagine the deterioration of the Traffic Bridge starting in a difficult budget year with officials suggesting proper maintenance can wait another year.

In just over 10 months, Saskatoon will enjoy a brand new bridge. But we’ll have to wait until budget talks next year to see whether we, as a city — taxpayers, politicians and administrators — would have been better off with a constant, shaming reminder.