| For several years now, governments at all levels have been undergoing important socio-economic changes characterized principally by budgetary constraints and a downloading of responsibilities to the lower levels of government.; It is therefore important in this context that decision makers involved with overseeing public infrastructure develop progressive “forward looking” strategies to meet the demands of the new reality within which they work.; This study investigates the current practices of several municipalities located in the greater Montreal region and proposes a management tool adapted to their needs and available over the Internet.; The first part of this report briefly reviews the important economic factors that have played a role in the evolution of the condition of our road networks, and in the decline of their quality for the past few decades.; The second part then explains, in detail, the practices used by six chosen municipalities within the greater Montreal area. This information was collected during a series of fact-finding interviews with the engineers and technicians working for the various municipalities and involved with the management of their road networks.; The last part of the report describes a management tool that would increase the effectiveness of a municipal administration in managing the maintenance and rehabilitation programs for their road infrastructure. The management tool is essentially a regularly updated computerized database of the condition of their road network that would be made available to them by the private sector on an ongoing basis over the Internet. It would relieve the individual municipalities from each having; the resources dedicated to carrying out these pavement condition surveys on a regular basis. This type of partnership between the public and private sectors could also help to develop innovative ways for financing (such as performance contracts) public infrastructure projects and promote technological advances that benefit both sectors. |
