Rising infrastructure costs

[cowman]

My local municipality is having a tough time keeping up the roads. In a newspaper article they stated actual spending on capital spending would increase this year almost 400% to close to $10 million dollars! Operating expenses to maintain the roads would increase by $1.4 million!
In the same article they stated taxes would not increase as the extra revenue would come from increased development income...read that as oil and gas as well as industrial land development.
If this boom ever grinds to a halt we are dead in the water!

[parsley]

I thought they were saving huge amounts on road maintenance since they have contracted it out .

[wmoebis]

Take a drive through Saskatchewan. Can't maintain with modern day equipment, what forefathers built with horses.

[cowman]

emerald: I asked the county CAO about the savings from the alternative services in Red Deer county at a recent town hall meeting and he assured me the savings were very real and he could show me the books to prove it! Haven't taken him up on that offer yet!
And I must admit the 7 year deal they recently negotiated with Alberta Highways(the contractor) looks pretty darned good.
He also admitted there were some initial screwups with some of the maitenance(which is understandable when you replace practically all the management in one swoop) but that through experience they were now seeing things come together!
The extra capital expense is mostly going to rebuild roads. Roads that were built for the horse and buggy...not B-trains and drilling rigs. They have a long term plan to rebuild the most heavily used roads as well as a fairly agressive paving program. The city of Red Deer is putting immense pressure on the roads around Red Deer without contributing anything to those roads.
The added maitenance costs are for extra gravel as well as a new program to mow all county roads. Too many complaints of poor visibility and graders pulling too much grass up on the roads.
In the big picture I think alternative services is the way to go. Obviously most municipalities don't think so? I suspect that has more to do with some politicians(and administrators) wanting to build their own little beurocratic empires than actual effective cost efficient service? I don't think there is anything government can do that is more efficient than the private sector as long as competition is out there?
The CAO is a pretty knowledgable guy and seems to be doing a very good job, as compared to the last one and the thief before him.

[cakadu]

Cowman, I'll invite you to take a drive west of Penhold on #592 I believe it is - stay on that road and then have a look at the mess it is in. They've had to put stakes in the road to prevent people from driving too close to the edge because they were falling into the ditch!!!!

Did you happen to find out which roads were getting improved? Those out in the nether regions of the county or those along the QEII corridor?

I would say that the some of the roads out here are in desperate need of some work and I can guarantee you it isn't because of the farm machinery going back and forth. RR #30 is paved all the way to Benalto and the traffic tends to miss that road altogether.

[cowman]

Linda: I drive #592 often. I know the stretch you talk of very well and it is not actually #592 but township road 370...from the bridge on the Medicine to range road 30.
I know the contractor who built that road and he told the county engineer that the specs were all wrong. Red Deer county built that road...for the Alberta government. The Alberta government paid for it with the intention of paving it and extending #592 to RR 30.
Obviously the county engineer made some big mistakes? Drainage that doesn't work and culverts that are not long enough...that is why you see the problems with the stakes! This road will be rebuilt next summer and paved.
Now obviously the county engineer didn't get it right? Or was it a decision made higher up...in the operations management? There have been a lot of bonehead decisions made there, mainly due to a manager that knows nothing about building a road...more of a paper type guy?
A lot of road building contractors are getting disgusted or contemptuous is maybe a better word with the incompetence of the operations management at Red Deer county! Top it off with a group of councillors who really don't have a clue and tend to cover up the short falls and what can you do?
Again at a recent townhall meeting I asked about another road that is a disaster...one councillor tried to blame the contractor...when I told her she didn't know what she was talking about and that the problem was management trucked in silt fill from Glennifer for the base, the Reeve said it was inappropriate to discuss how a contractor had failed! End of discussion! The Reeve knows who screwed up...and it wasn't the contractor!
When Red Deer county went to alternative services it really was for one reason? To take the heat off a council that had not been taking care of business and had let the CAO steal $3.5 million? Unfortunately when they cleaned house they also got rid of all the old boys who knew how to build a road? How many of the present staff were around more than 5 years ago...virtually none!
The real problem with alternative services isn't the contractors but the operations management directing them? You can't have idiots who don't know anything running the show? And by the way, is your own councillor asking the question "How come this expensive road is such a mess?" Maybe you need to ask him?