City administrators say only 38 per cent of Calgary’s 17,000 kilometres of road lane can be considered in good condition
A city committee on Wednesday agreed to consider dramatically hiking spending to maintain roads that are deteriorating well below Canadian standards.
They voted unanimously in favour of reviewing in next month’s budgeting process investments in pothole repairs and resurfacing that city administrators say would require $80 million in additional funds annually to ensure 60 per cent of arterial and 54 per cent of collector roads are in good shape a decade from now.
City administrators say only 38 per cent of Calgary’s 17,000 kilometres of road lane can be considered in good condition and that staying with the current annual maintenance budget of $47.8 million will result in significantly escalating costs.
At the same time, 26 per cent of Calgary’s roads are in poor shape and another 36 per cent are in fair condition, say city bureaucrats.
“Every day, Calgarians make one million trips on poor roads,” said Charmaine Buhler, manager of construction and materials for the city’s mobility department.
She noted the Canadian average for good roads is 60 per cent.
Said Mobility Director Troy McLeod on the current level of funding: “It doesn’t meet the investment required to maintain that quality.”
By comparison, Edmonton — with 13,000 km of road lane — boasts a neighbourhood renewal budget of $158.8 million, with 73 per cent of its roads considered to be in good repair, the infrastructure and planning committee heard.
“We used to say Edmonton had worse roads than we do but now it’s the other way around,” said Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong.
An administration report said a policy of deferring road repairs is extremely penny-wise and pound-foolish, while recommending annual funding be hiked to $116 million.
“As pavement quality deteriorates, failure to achieve an acceptable level of service will lead to future repairs requiring more reconstruction as opposed to repaving, which will result in reconstruction costs five to seven times more than traditional paving and repair programs,” says the report, adding a city survey done last spring shows 83 per cent of Calgarians support increased spending on road improvements.
“By prioritizing these repairs, we can avoid an estimated $600 million in future costs and lay the groundwork for a more sustainable road network.”
That’s become apparent by the number of potholes filled up to the end of September this year by city crews: 30,830, a 25 per cent increase over the same time period in 2023, states the report.
In that time frame, there was also a 52 per cent increase in the number of pothole repair requests received by the city over the previous year.
‘It’s a lot of money’
But Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot questioned where the extra investment money would come from, even with the funding for urgently-needed deferred reconstruction and major paving work phased in at $14.45 million the next two years as mid-cycle budget adjustments and an additional $35.8 million added in 2026.
“This ($14.45 million) is almost one per cent a year tax increase and ($35.8 million) almost two per cent,” said Chabot.
“It’s a pretty significant increase in base funding … it’s a lot of money.”
But that investment would ultimately more than pay for itself, said Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer.
“I do believe we can afford to save money on this and we need to,” he said.
Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian said she sympathized with those who believe the city spends too much money on roads that result in costly sprawl.
But ultimately, she said, the city has to take care of what it owns — a road network administrators say is worth $15 billion.
“We have to be careful on how much we grow out … but we are underfunding the asset,” she said.