The economic success of a nation, province, or municipality is closely tied to the condition of their civil infrastructure. Ontario roads and bridges built throughout the 1950s and 60s are quickly approaching the end of their design life. Without the necessary funding, the declining condition of these assets can result in roads with compromised safety and increased road user cost. Historically, there has been an underinvestment in maintaining our infrastructure at an acceptable level. Small municipalities are the most seriously affected by this underinvestment and are continually placed in a position where they are required to do more with less. In 2008, the Ontario provincial government, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), and the City of Toronto published the Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review that identified a $60 billion investment was required over 10 years to bring our aging physical structures and facilities back to an acceptable standard (1). Of this amount, $28 billion would need to be dedicated to upgrading Ontario’s roads and bridges. The paper focuses on how small municipalities can effectively manage and improve the condition of their aging road infrastructure based on several funding scenarios. To achieve this, best practices in the area of infrastructure management and capital investment planning will be explored using the Ontario Good Roads Association’s asset management software, Municipal DataWorks (MDW).
