01-31-2022, 10:09 PM
The short answer is: they do their best with what they have. To pick one City, the City of Waterloo has a 25-year rolling asset management plan (PDF) that is reviewed every 4-5 years. This is regulated by the Province of Ontario. Currently, based on the City's annual funding plan, only about half of the projects for the next 25-years will be funded at the end of that 25-year period. As is common, the funding gap is often covered by higher levels of government, or in some rare cases fundraising campaigns for big things like recreation centres (Note: "Assets" includes everything from Transportation to Cemeteries and IT)
There are also multiple levels of road maintenance depending on the need:
- patching: for a small pot hole when the rest of the road is okay
- resurface and repair: scrape off the top layer and lay down fresh
- reconstruction: go down 6-8' and start all over again with all of the below ground services (more typically in the older areas, often when the underground services have had one too many water main breaks)
There are also multiple levels of road maintenance depending on the need:
- patching: for a small pot hole when the rest of the road is okay
- resurface and repair: scrape off the top layer and lay down fresh
- reconstruction: go down 6-8' and start all over again with all of the below ground services (more typically in the older areas, often when the underground services have had one too many water main breaks)