ONTARIO'S BRIDGES - BRIDGING THE GAP - Complete ... - rccao

BRIDGE INVENTORY RESPONSIBILITYThe “2004 Annual Report of the Office of the Provincial Auditor of Ontario” (2004 and the2006 follow-up report) states:“The Ministry of Transportation has indicated that its Bridge ManagementSystem (BMS), which contains complete and accurate information on Ministrybridges and culverts, has been reconciled with its paper records.” 3This report covers provincial bridges that are clearly the responsibility of the MTO. Theresponsibility for municipal bridges, however, is less clear, as is the extent of the infrastructuredeficit. According to the Provincial Auditor, it is the Ministry of Transportation’s view thatmunicipalities are responsible for maintaining an inventory of their own bridges and forperforming related maintenance. This interpretation is consistent with our reading of thelegislation. Unfortunately, neither the legislation nor the Provincial Auditor addresses themechanics of how this inventory is to be obtained and maintained by municipalities.MTO has addressed this municipal bridge issue in documentation associated with applicationsunder the Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (COMRIF) which providesinfrastructure funding assistance to municipalities with a population of less than 250,000. ForCOMRIF applications, biennial inspections in accordance with the requirements of the PublicTransportation and Highway Improvement Act and associated Regulations are prescribed,and inspections are to be undertaken in accordance with the “Ontario Structure InspectionManual” (OSIM). There is, however, no indication that this information is currently compiledin a central location and/or aggregated within the Ministry database. We assume that at leastthe information submitted with the COMRIF applications is available as part of the COMRIFdatabase and could, therefore, be consolidated with the Ministry’s system.Unfortunately, this linkage is not sufficient to complete the inventory as:• Data are only available for bridges and culverts where funding assistance was requested;• COMRIF is only available to municipalities smaller than 250,000;• To date, 75% of funded projects are for municipalities with a population of less than25,000. It is not known how many larger municipalities applied for funding and submittedan accompanying Bridge Condition Index; and• This database only incorporates data associated with bridges in need of funding for repairsor maintenance.The Provincial Auditor also noted that the Ministry had provided funding to the OGRA (in mid2005) to prepare an accurate inventory of all municipal roads and bridges. This initiative isnow underway, but the resulting inventory does not include the data on current conditions (if32004 Annual Report of the office of the Provincial Auditor of OntarioRCCAO | IIC | Ontario Bridges Bridging the GapMMM Group | November 2007 D16-070765