10-Year Bridge Prioritization Program

Project Overview

The Municipality of West Grey has responsibility for 114 bridges and culverts (structures
with span ≥ 3 m) across its 876 km² geography. Many of these structures are over 75 years old and have been built to older standards, while traffic volumes, vehicle loads (including farm equipment) and structural deterioration have increased the risks of failure or closure.

In March 2025, Council approved a 10-Year Bridge Prioritization and Financing Strategy to guide investment, repair, replacement and risk management of the bridge network.

Scope of Work

Inventory and Condition Assessment

Identify all structures in the network: 114 bridges/culverts (span ≥ 3 m).
Use the Ontario Structure Inspection Manual (OSIM) to assess condition, estimate remaining service life, and compute a Bridge Condition Index (BCI) score for each structure.
Determine which have a BCI ≤ 70 or ≤ 10 years of remaining service life flagged for higher priority.

Prioritization Process

Use a risk model that combines Probability of Failure and Consequence of Closure/Failure to rank structures.
Probability of Failure includes: BCI rating, remaining service life, traffic volumes (Average Daily Traffic or ADT) for the road segment.
Consequence of Closure/Failure includes: length of detour, effect on emergency services / response time, local access disruption, traffic volume.

Repair / Rehabilitation / Replacement Works

For each prioritized structure: conduct pre-engineering assessments to determine the best solution (repair vs rehabilitate vs replace).
Implement capital works: deck replacements, substructure repairs, full bridging solutions, widened structures, meeting current load/axle standards.
Funding allocation: allocate municipal tax levy, growth contributions, provincial/federal grants (e.g., OCIF) over 10 years.

Project Timeline

The strategy covers a 10-year period (approved March 2025) for prioritization and financing of key bridge projects.

The prioritization list (for the first 10 critical structures) estimates about $19.1 million over the next decade.

Review of the priority list is scheduled every two years, and financing strategy is reviewed annually during budget deliberations.

Development Review Process

Key steps:

Inspection and condition assessment (via OSIM).
Risk-scoring and ranking (as described above).
Budgeting and funding allocation: approving capital in annual municipal budgets, leveraging growth levy, OCIF, grants.
Procurement/Tendering: issuing contracts for design-build or design-bid-build (e.g., Bridge N-056 project used a design-build process).
Construction implementation and monitoring.
Review and update of prioritization list every two years.

Benefits of the Project

Safety and Reliability: Ensures that aging bridge and culvert assets are maintained or replaced before failure, reducing risk of structural collapse, accidents, emergency service delays.

Connectivity: Keeps key transportation links open for residents, agriculture (farm equipment, grain trucks), local businesses, and emergency response especially important in a rural municipality with many dispersed communities.

Economic Stability: By maintaining infrastructure, the municipality supports market access for farmers and goods movement, helping local businesses avoid disruptions.

Fiscal Planning and Sustainability: Having a prioritization framework and financing strategy means better budget predictability and risk-managed investment, rather than reacting to failures which tend to cost more and cause greater disruption.

Asset Life Extension and Cost Efficiency: By applying the risk-based prioritization, the municipality can direct limited resources to the most critical structures, potentially explore alternative solutions (e.g., culverts replacing bridges in lower-risk settings) thereby achieving cost savings.

Community Confidence and Infrastructure Resilience: The proactive approach reassures residents and businesses, builds trust in municipal governance, supports strategic objectives such as those in the 2024-26 Strategic Plan.

Future-proofing: By aligning with OSIM condition data, traffic volumes, and risk modelling, the municipality positions itself to address not just current but future infrastructure demands.

Next Steps

Implementation of the approved 10-year strategy: committing the annual funding allocations (base tax levy, growth contribution, grant allocation) and initiating capital projects for the prioritized structures.

Municipality of West Grey
402813 Grey Road 4
Durham, ON N0G 1R0
info@westgrey.com
519-369-2200