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Greater Sudbury roads’ ongoing degradation under review

City staff are reviewing their approach to maintaining Greater Sudbury’s underfunded roads, with a financial strategy and service level expectations being hashed out
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Roadwork is seen taking place on The Kingsway earlier this year.

How much should the city spend on its roads, what condition should they be maintained at and what’s the financial strategy to hit these targets?

These and other questions are expected to be answered by city council this summer, fuelled by information currently being compiled by city staff.

In early 2023, the city reported that Greater Sudbury roads were en route for a slip from an overall “fair” to “poor” condition by approximately 2030.

At the time, the city’s five-year average annual investment in roads was $35 million, which fell $45 million short of the $80 million required to maintain them in their current condition.

As such, they were degrading.

This, within a broader annual infrastructure funding gap of approximately $130 million.

Not much has changed for Greater Sudbury roads since then, with the 2024-27 capital budget for roads assets considered in the roads and transportation asset management plan totalling $153 million, or $38.3 million annually.

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The latest condition assessment information for Greater Sudbury roads and sidewalks. Image: City of Greater Sudbury

Without enough funding available, city Growth and Infrastructure general manager Tony Cecutti said the city has been prioritizing its arterial roads.

“Those are the roads that have the largest volumes on them and the highest traffic speeds as well,” he said. “They’re integral to the economic sustainability of the community. Without investment in those roads your economy would start to suffer and you could be suffering a lot of liabilities for claims.”

Lesser-travelled roads, including collectors and local roads, fall down the list.

This is evidenced by the condition of these roads.

While 75 per cent of arterial roads are in either good or very good condition, only 36 per cent of collector and local roads are in as good of shape.

Among arterial roads, seven per cent are in poor or very poor condition, while 31 per cent of collector roads and 34 per cent of local roads have degraded to this degree.

“You’re trying to not let your assets dip into poor quality,” Cecutti said, explaining that once they reach this stage they’re “prohibitively expensive.”

Once roads hit poor condition they tend to stay that way, he said, because they can’t really get any worse, which is why the city prioritizes good- and fair-condition roads.

Sidewalks, meanwhile, are in decent shape overall, city project manager Miranda Edwards said, noting that 86 per cent of sidewalks are in very good or good condition, 13 per cent are in fair condition and one per cent are poor.

A series of reports are slated to better hash out the city’s approach to dealing with the ongoing underfunding of municipal roads, road treatment options and an cost-estimate update (is the $80-million annual funding requirement to maintain status-quo overall road conditions still a viable number?).

“The city will engage with the public in mid-March to explain what goes into asset management planning, what roads assets are, what type of lifecycle treatment do we plan for, and how that extends the service life of a road,” Edwards said. 

“We will also be explaining the overall condition of our road network, the funding levels that we have had and how that has impacted the condition.”

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.



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