Canada’s network of publicly owned roads spanned more than one million kilometres in 2018, and grew at an average annual rate of 24,000 kilometres.

Those were two of the key findings in a report on Canada’s Core Public Infrastructure Survey that was issued by Statistics Canada in partnership with Infrastructure Canada. The survey is a comprehensive study of the stock, condition, performance and asset management strategies of Canada's roads, bridges and tunnels. It covers those assets owned and operated by provincial, territorial, regional and municipal governments, as well as those owned by select provincial Crown corporations and public transit authorities.

The key finding in the 2018 data was a significant increase in the number of kilometres of publicly owned roads. Compared with the 2016 survey, the total road length increased by more than 300,000 kilometres, although the survey was expanded in 2018 to include roads owned and operated by more small municipalities.

Saskatchewan accounted for the largest share of Canada's roads at 23.6 percent. A large majority of Saskatchewan's road network was located in rural municipalities.

Local roads remained the most common road type in Canada. They accounted for nearly 59 percent of total road length and nearly 70 percent of all municipally owned roads. Saskatchewan had the highest volume of local roads in Canada (27.3 percent), followed by Alberta (20.0 percent) and Ontario (18.7 percent).

Highways, excluding rural highways, comprised 4.8 percent (51,093 kilometres) of all roads.  Rural highways accounted for 8.9 percent (94,443 kilometres).

The survey also found that the rate of road construction is accelerating compared with past years. In 2017 and 2018, 48,969 kilometres of new roads were constructed in Canada. Of these, 62.1 percent were local roads, and 11.7 percent were highways, including rural highways. Construction accelerated significantly in 2017 and 2018, at an average of 24,000 kilometres of new roads per year, compared with an average of 9,000 kilometres per year from 2000 to 2016.

Road conditions improving

Respondents were asked to rate the conditions of their road stocks on a five-point scale from very poor to very good. The survey found that about 15 percent of local roads were in poor or very poor condition, meaning that they needed either immediate attention or had less than half of their service lives remaining. That figure was a slight decrease from the 16.3 percent of roads in poor or very poor condition reported in the 2016 survey.

As a way of combatting such deterioration, many road owners have implemented asset-management plans. Overall, 57 percent of all road owners reported having such plans in 2018, compared with 44 percent in 2016.

Ontario required all municipalities to have asset management plans in place by July 1, 2024, and more than 93 percent of road owners in the province reported having those plans in place in 2018.

Most bridges are owned by municipalities

In 2018, there were 51,717 publicly owned bridges in Canada. Ontario had the most bridges at 15,534, followed by Alberta with 9,400.

In Ontario and Alberta, most bridges are owned by municipalities, most of which are considered rural municipalities. Conversely, bridges in Atlantic Canada are largely owned by the provincial governments.

Highway bridges, excluding rural highway bridges, were reported to be in the best condition of all types of bridges, with 71 percent in good or very good condition. In comparison, 42.1 percent of rural highway bridges were in good or very good condition.

Local road bridges and rural highway bridges were reported to be in the worst physical condition, with 15.7 percent and 14.1 percent respectively (excluding bridges in Quebec) in poor or very poor condition. More than a quarter of local road bridges (28.0 percent) and rural highway bridges (25.3 percent) were more than 50 years old. Furthermore, the year of construction was unknown for 23.6 percent of local road bridges and 24.7 percent of rural highway bridges.