Warning on bridge-inspection gap

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This article was published 21/07/2016 (3573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province is failing to inspect bridges as frequently as it should, creating a potential safety risk, a report from Manitoba’s auditor general says.

Norm Ricard’s 42-page report, released Thursday, is a scathing indictment of the Infrastructure Department’s management of more than 3,000 provincial bridges and large culverts.

The report found problems with bridge inspection, construction oversight and inventory planning and performance reporting. It makes 20 recommendations for improvement.

The audit found the department does not inspect all bridges as frequently as required under its own rules, and hundreds of structures are not being inspected at all.

“Bridge inspections are the first line of defence in ensuring bridge safety,” Ricard said. “That is why it is particularly concerning that we found several bridge structures that were not being inspected as frequently as required or at all, as well as maintenance and rehabilitation work recommended by inspectors often being waived or deferred without any documented rationale.”

Ricard said he found, to his surprise, many provincial bridges, regarded as the responsibility of other government departments or conservation districts, were not being inspected by the Infrastructure Department.

“We found that these structures are not being inspected, creating a potential safety risk,” the AG said.

The report said a police investigation of a fatal collision on one of the un-inspected bridges noted a lack of railings might have been a contributing factor. “When later asked to inspect the bridge, department officials recommended closing it because of its poor condition,” the report said.

The province is responsible for 1,782 bridges and 1,317 large culverts. Their total replacement value is estimated at $9.2 billion. Close to 40 per cent of the bridges are more than 50 years old.

Infrastructure Minister Blaine Pedersen, who inherited the portfolio in May when the Progressive Conservatives took office, said the report shows critical infrastructure was allowed to erode and “bridge safety was potentially compromised” under the previous NDP administration.

“Our government is already working to implement the recommendations of the auditor general, and timelines are in the process of being established. We are confident that we will be able to restore public confidence in the safety of our province’s critical infrastructure,” he said in a statement.

Pedersen also promised to update Manitobans regularly on the progress of implementing the report’s recommendations. Further opportunities for improvement will also be explored through a planned value-for-money audit of government services, he added.

Two types of bridge inspection are conducted in Manitoba. Level 1 inspections or ‘general inspections’ are to occur every spring once water levels recede to normal. Level 2 inspections involve a more detailed visual look that might require the use of specialized equipment. The latter are required every two to six years, depending on the structure’s size and type.

The audit found half the bridges did not receive general inspections (level 1) yearly as required. It also found “some” bridges didn’t receive the required more detailed inspections (level 2) on time.

More worrisome, 616 structures that were considered the department’s responsibility were not being inspected at all, and another 288 were not being inspected because they were considered the responsibility of other departments or quasi-government authorities.

Ricard also found fault with the province’s supervision of bridge construction, saying on-site inspectors failed to use government-prepared checklists. This increased the risk the work would not be carried out as specified, he said.

A spokeswoman for the provincial NDP said the party agrees that bridge inspection must be improved.

Denise MacDonald, press secretary to interim Leader Flor Marcelino, said the report also shows the NDP government made long-standing efforts to improve ßmanagement of bridges and culverts.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

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