The Township has 111 bridges (including culverts) that have a span of 3 meters or more. Bridges are inspected by qualified structural engineers every two years as prescribed by the Ontario Regulation 104-97. Bridges that have been identified with significant structural concerns are inspected every six months.

The Township understands that bridge closures and load restrictions negatively impact our residents, farmers and businesses. Therefore, in 2015, Council approved a budget that included a Dedicated Capital Levy (DCL) specific to bridges and major culverts, that grows each year though a compounding 2% increase to the base Township taxation levy. The 2% compounding increase to the DCL occurred from 2015 to 2020, and was eliminated for the 2021 and 2022 budgets.

Bridge Rebuilding Program: Dedicated Capital Levy (DCL)

  • The DCL, in addition to the Townships Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF) annual allocation from the province is directed exclusively to the Township’s Bridge Rebuilding Program.
  • In 2022, on an average assessed residential property of $381,095, $4,279 in total property taxation was collected. $1,279 of this amount was collected for Township purposes, which includes $115 for the DCL. On average, approximately 2.7% of a property’s total taxation is allocated to the DCL.
  • In 2022 $1.57 million in DCL and $1.27 million in OCIF was allocated to the Bridge & Major Culvert Program.

Images that represent the bridges repaired/rehabilitated or rebuilt over the last 8 years, can be found in the photo library to the right of the page.

As shown below, by 2020 the combined DCL and OCIF annual funding reached $2.8 million. A summary of the bridge and major culvert rehabilitation and replacement forecast (approved in the 2022 budget) is provided below.


Steps to Setting Bridge Priorities

  • Bridges are identified through the Township’s Asset Management Plan as priorities, which is refined during the annual budget process. This identifies which bridges will be rebuilt in that budget year.
  • Bridges are accessed a risk rating using the following considerations:
    • bridge condition
    • load limits
    • detour length
    • traffic volume
    • local access
    • emergency response times
    • heritage status.
  • Based on the risk ranking system, the bridge is placed in the Bridge & Major Culvert Program.

Asset Risk

  • Risk of maintaining bridge assets has been determined using a matrix framework taking into consideration both the Probability of Failure (PoF) and Consequence of Failure (CoF) of the asset. Each PoF and CoF are comprised of several factors in determining the score associated with each asset.
  • Improvements to asset and system capacity, function and condition are often limited by available funding and resources. It is necessary to prioritize asset investments and improvements based on risk exposure. The matrix used for the risk assessment of bridge & culvert assets for the Township of Centre Wellington is detailed below:

2022 Capital Budget

  • The approved 2022 Capital Budget totaled $20.6 million.
  • 83% of this budget represents infrastructure such as roads, bridges/culverts, water, and wastewater.
  • 22% represents bridges and culverts.

Bridge Replacement Process

Year One – Conduct a Municipal Environment Assessment Study to establish a bridge solution. The options considered typically include replacing, rehabilitating, or removing a bridge.
Year Two – Detailed Design.
Year Three – Construction Phase.