How city street repairs are decided

WINNIPEG — The city is hoping to spend 103 million dollars of your money to make Winnipeg streets smoother.

That’s around $20 million more going towards roads than was allotted in 2015.

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The cash is mainly coming from a two per cent property tax increase dedicated to improving local and regional streets as well as a hike in the frontage levy by 60 cents per foot.

In an email to Global News, the city says local streets are prioritized year to year. Which ones get fixed depends on function (collector or bus route), condition, underground condition (sewer and water), and ward priority

As for regional streets, the city says the repairs on those are prioritized by traffic counts, number of buses, and benefit cost numbers (factoring in condition, and the relative cost to repair) of where it is in its life cycle.

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Regardless of what streets are picked for repair, the construction industry would like to see the approval process streamlined, so more streets can get repaired during Winnipeg’s short construction season.

“We are hopeful if not by 2015 season but by the 2016 season there will be significant procedural improvements that will allow more work to get done faster,” said Chris Lorenc, the president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association.