Huge funding gap in budget to maintain Sudbury’s road network

There was an update provided to Greater Sudbury's operations committee about the city's roads and transportation asset management plan on Monday.

Under current budget plans, Greater Sudbury will spend $700 million less than what is needed to maintain its road network over the next 10 years.

That news was delivered Monday afternoon when members of the city’s operations committee received an update on the roads and transportation asset management plan.

“Our current funding levels are approximately $35 million annually in roads assets, which equals $322 million over 10 years,” said Miranda Edwards, project manager in the city’s engineering department.

“The impacts at that funding level will mean that the current conditions of the road will deteriorate for … all arterial collector and local roads.”

To properly maintain the roads would cost $1.1 billion over the next decade, Edwards said.

The challenge is that in a city of 179,965 people, there are almost 3,700 lane km of roads. Stretched out, that’s the equivalent of driving from Sudbury to British Columbia.

In addition, the costs of maintaining the road network have spiked. Reconstructing a square metre of road cost $365 in 2016, compared to $768 in 2024.

Road spending in the city peaked in 2019, at $62 million, while it was $21 million in 2024. The annual need to maintain the roads is about $80 million.

“You can see the costs are escalating, and there doesn’t seem to be a plan,” said Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin.

“People want their roads fixed (but) I don’t know where we’re going to get $80 million a year to get there. And even if we did, do we even have the capacity? Is there any company that can come out here and actually do $80 million a work? It’s … very troubling.”

Edwards said there will be an update at the finance and administration committee in April with more information and funding options.

Read the full presentation on the city’s roads here.