WINNIPEG – The Manitoba Heavy Construction Association (MHCA) is urging Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI) to release a long-term asset management plan to the public.
The proposed plan would be similar to the State of the Infrastructure report the City of Winnipeg currently publishes, an MHCA newsletter said.
“Such a report is the foundational planning document for responsible management and strategic financial stewardship of our transportation system and core infrastructure,” MHCA president Chris Lorenc said at a board of directors meeting on June 26.
“We assert that the document must be publicly disclosed, so Manitobans can see for themselves what is the shape of the roads, highways, bridges and water structures, how much investment is required to bring the assets to good condition and how the province plans, financially, to make that commitment.”
The board was also informed, the newsletter said, of discussions with MTI about the lack of work being seen in tender advertising to date this season.
MTI has said that 80 per cent of the $500 million highways capital budget has been tendered and awarded, the newsletter added.
The tender ad schedules issued since November have also not aligned with industry expectations, with projects being pushed back in tendering on Merx.
Lorenc also told the board that MHCA and other industry representatives met with the deputy ministers of finance, economic development investment and trade/natural resources as well as MTI to talk about delays seen in permitting, approvals and locates.
The association stressed, according to the newsletter, that delays in quarry permits and casual leases and to the provision of locates services by utilities risk holding up the start or the completion of projects.
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