OGRA to Manage $750,000 Fund for Municipalities

TORONTO, April 19 /CNW/ - On March 24, 2010, the Ontario Good Roads Association (OGRA) and Ontario's Ministry of Transportation (MTO) entered into an agreement to support municipal bridge infrastructure.

The Ontario government will provide $750,000 to help Ontario municipalities collect and report data on the extent and condition of bridge structures in their jurisdiction.

All municipalities will be able to apply for matching funding to a maximum of $5,000 to assist them with the costs of collecting, collating, compiling, formatting, and inputting bridge asset and condition data into Municipal DataWorks (MDW).

To qualify for the funding, municipalities will have to provide a letter of commitment to submit bridge asset and condition data for inclusion into MDW by March 31, 2011. The funding may be used for additional staff and/or consulting services.

In her comments, Minister of Transportation, Kathleen Wynne stated: "The acquisition of municipal bridge asset and condition information is of great importance to the Province in order to support the assessment of municipal bridge infrastructure needs."

"We were extremely pleased to be able to assist our members by managing these funds on behalf of MTO" said Paul Johnson, OGRA President and Operations Manager for the County of Wellington. "OGRA has been encouraging municipalities to get their infrastructure data into MDW, and this funding announcement will only accelerate our efforts."

"OGRA is well positioned to administer this program" stated OGRA Executive Director Joe Tiernay. "We already have close to 300 municipalities signed up to use MDW, and now that there is funding available to help offset costs, we hope to see the remaining 145 municipalities get on board. Only with solid infrastructure condition information, can municipalities truly manage their assets and make a solid case for future infrastructure funding."

Details on how to apply for funding can be found on the OGRA website at www.ogra.org

For further information: Joe Tiernay, Executive Director, OGRA, Cell: [phone], Office: [phone], Email: [email protected]