Infrastructure

The newest research centre at the ��߲ݴ�ý's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering will develop innovative ways to meet the urgent and growing need for infrastructure – without further exacerbating the climate crisis.

The Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment brings together seven researchers from across U of T, as well as a dozen companies in construction and related industries. The goal is to identify strategies that will lower the environmental footprint by reimagining how new infrastructure is designed, where it is built and what materials are used in its construction.

“In Canada and around the world, we have a huge housing and infrastructure deficit – there’s a big social need to build much more than we have right now,” says Shoshanna Saxe, associate professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering and Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Infrastructure.

“At the same time, construction resource use accounts for up to a third of total global greenhouse gas emissions each year, a problem that is getting worse. It’s been estimated that if we continue current ways of construction, by 2050 the emissions due to new housing alone will cause us to blow past two degrees of global warming,” she adds. “If we want to avoid that, let alone reach net zero by 2050, we need to find ways to do more with less.”

Saxe and her collaborators – Evan Bentz, Chris Essert, Elias Khalil, Heather MacLean, Daman Panesar and Daniel Posen, all fellow U of T researchers – plan to approach this complex challenge from several different angles. Some efficiencies can be found by looking at where new housing is built, as well as what it looks like.

“The average person living in a city consumes fewer resources than the average person living in a suburb, because in a city you have more people per kilometre of sewer, road or electrical infrastructure. There are big rewards for well-designed cities,” Saxe says.

“The shape and types of buildings we build is also important. For example, Toronto has a lot of long skinny apartments, where a lot of the space is in the hallway. If we design differently, we can better use that space to provide more housing, or avoid [extra space] all together and save materials, emissions and cost.”

Saxe and her team have also shown that large concrete basements account for a high proportion of the emissions due to construction – building more of the structure above ground could improve the environmental bottom line. Other potential solutions involve alternative building materials, such as new types of concrete that are less carbon-intensive.

The multidisciplinary team – whose researchers cover a wide range of expertise, from carrying out life-cycle analysis of construction projects to defining national carbon budgets – will address issues well beyond the traditional bounds of engineering. For example, the group plans to explore the legal frameworks that translate established housing rights into practical built spaces.

“It’s absurd to say that the right to housing means that everyone has to live in a space the size of a closet,” Saxe says. “But it’s also absurd to expect everyone to have their own 3,500-square-foot house. Can we find a middle ground where everyone can live in dignity, without consuming in a way that threatens the planet?”

The research collaboration includes 12 external partners in the construction sector: Colliers; the Cement Association of Canada; Chandos Construction; Mattamy Homes; Northcrest; Pomerleau; Purpose Building, Inc.; ZGF Architects; Arup; SvN Architects + Planners; Entuitive; and KPMB Architects.

By working closely with this core group, Saxe and her collaborators aim to speed up knowledge translation, ensuring that the insights gained through their research can be applied in industry.

“The conversations we have with our partners can inform their design and construction, as well as the conversations they then have with their clients, raising everyone’s level of knowledge and awareness,” she says.

“We hope that by giving people – policymakers, designers and builders – the tools they need to address these challenges of building more with fewer emissions, we can improve outcomes across the built environment and create a more sustainable future for everyone.”

U of T and partners to improve flow of goods, traffic with new Smart Freight Centre

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 15:07:30 +0000

U of T and partners to improve flow of goods, traffic with new Smart Freight Centre

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/18/2019 - 11:07

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Researchers from U of T, York and McMaster will work together to improve how goods are delivered in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area as freight demand rises alongside concerns about traffic congestion (photo by Danielle Scott via Flickr)

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Infrastructure

Research & Innovation

Traffic

Transportation

Leading experts from the ��߲ݴ�ý, McMaster University and York University are working together to improve –and future-proof – how goods are delivered across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area through a newly established Smart Freight Centre.

From delivering stock to stores or packages to individual homes, the demand for freight transportation continues to rise –at the same time that expected delivery windows are narrowing.

The result is more traffic.

“It’s the Amazon effect,” says Matt Roorda, a professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering and the U of T Transportation Research Institute. “People are buying things online and expect them delivered within a day or even within a few hours.

“And that has a real impact on the number of trucks on the road.”

The new centre, officially launched today in Brampton, Ont., will study ways to improve the transportation of goods throughout the region. Among other things, researchers will look at how increased truck traffic contributes to congestion on the roads and competition for parking, both of which pose distribution challenges — especially as populations grow. They will also look at how stop-and-go traffic leads to higher carbon emissions.

As the Smart Freight Centre’s inaugural chair, Roorda says the centre seeks to advance the goals outlined in the Region of Peel’s strategic plan for the movement of goods.

“We want to establish sustainable freight transportation systems that are more efficient and less impactful on communities,” Roorda says.

Roorda’s own project, which launched in February, will see industry partners Walmart, Loblaws and LCBO stores piloting nighttime freight deliveries – shifting key daytime deliveries from distribution centres to retail locations to the late evening, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

“There definitely seems to be a lot of spare capacity on our roadways at different times of day, so why not make better use of our current infrastructure?” says Roorda. “With there being less traffic congestion on the road during that time period, what we hope to see by studying the before and after, is that operations are running faster and more smoothly.”

Roorda’s research group will also look at how the time shift will affect emission levels, examine cost mitigation for companies, and consider whether late-evening noise levels are an issue for residents along freight delivery routes.

Roorda’s pilot is one of three initial projects underway in the new centre, each led by a partner university. York will study the feasibility of establishing truck-only lanes in the region, while McMaster will research e-commerce purchasing behaviours to predict driving trends of future and home-delivery demands.

Roorda and his colleagues at York and McMaster are currently developing the centre’s five-year plan, which will also include research projects on automated trucks and innovative alternatives to last-mile deliveries.

“I think we can make an impact with not just research papers in journals, but with demonstrated projects – there’s one foot in real life happening with this centre,” says Roorda.

“These are on-the-ground problems that we’re trying to solve."

How Canada can, and must, empower Indigenous communities: U of T expert

noreen.rasbach — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 19:29:01 +0000

How Canada can, and must, empower Indigenous communities: U of T expert noreen.rasbach Mon, 10/01/2018 - 15:29

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A dilapidated house in the northern Ontario First Nation of Attawapiskat. The parliamentary budget officer says it will cost more than $3 billion to bring First Nations water infrastructure up to standards (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

Topic

Rotman School of Management

The Conversation

The federal government recently spent $4.5 billion to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline, a move that highlights the significant political risk underlying the project’s expansion.

The government purchase was required as a last resort because there’s no private sector appetite to bear the risks. It’s culminated in a Federal Court of Appeal ruling that halts, at least temporarily, the expansion project.

That court ruling made reference to inadequate consultations with Indigenous Peoples as a major factor in its decision.

This isn’t surprising. Many of Canada’s major infrastructure projects that have an impact on Canada’s Indigenous communities have resulted in protests, legal challenges and political roadblocks.

It’s now time for federal and provincial governments to treat Indigenous communities with more respect and engage them as collaborators in infrastructure projects that impact their communities, rather than a simple obstacle to be dealt with after the deal is made. There are sufficient benefits to satisfy all stakeholders.

Effective engagement will result in a more timely and certain path to completion for critical infrastructure projects, thus advancing Canada’s best interests.

Closing the income gap

But there is another important outcome that frankly must be elevated in importance.

Canada’s Indigenous population numbers about two million, or five per cent of Canada’s population. The average income across this community is half that of the rest of Canadians.

Engaging these communities meaningfully would close this income gap, adding $50 billion to Canada’s annual GDP. This would empower Indigenous communities, promote economic reconciliation and correct a national tragedy that has impacted these Canadian communities.

In a powerful op-ed in the Globe and Mail, Sharleen Gale, head of the First Nations Major Projects Coalition, wrote: “For generations, First Nations communities have been constrained by the Indian Act and decades of government paternalism and over-regulation. We did not have the chance to break into the modern economy, and lacked the basic business tools available to other Canadians. We could not borrow money to buy and build our homes, let alone get the funds needed to make major investments.”

Improvements to financial and economic structures have been advanced that would now enable sustainable Indigenous economic participation in large infrastructure projects.

This would allow the establishment of a timely and certain path to consultation, approval and completion of projects, while providing Indigenous communities access to the financial resources needed to develop their local economies.

Municipal bonds

Consider the following systematic barrier.

Municipalities have predictable recurring revenues from their tax base, and can borrow money by issuing municipal bonds at low interest rates because those bonds are guaranteed by provincial governments.

In contrast, Indigenous communities do not have a predictable recurring revenue source that would enable planning and budgeting for local infrastructure, and federal legislation explicitly states that Ottawa will not guarantee Indigenous bond issues.

Unlike other municipalities, Indigenous communities are unable to fund infrastructure and other needed investments.

In a recent infrastructure competition, we proposed an innovative solution to this problem.

The CanInfra Summit and Ideas Conference/CanInfra

The Indigenous Infrastructure Investment Trust, or 3IT financial framework, puts Indigenous communities on an equal footing with municipalities.

This structure allows for the mobilization of capital into Indigenous communities in a way that allows for the development of both critical infrastructure projects like Trans Mountain as well as local infrastructure within Indigenous communities.

A recent World Bank report on mobilizing global capital for participatory investment in infrastructure projects illustrates how this approach has proliferated across the developing world. As the 3IT framework demonstrates, it can easily work in Canada.

But bold leadership is required. Without it, critical infrastructure projects will continue to be delayed, natural resources will remain stuck in the ground and Indigenous communities will remain shut out of the modern economy.

Walid Hejazi is an associate professor of international business at the Rotman School of Management at U of T. David Robinson is executive director of The Techknowledgey Group.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Green infrastructure: New tool by U of T researchers to help construction industry reduce carbon footprint

rasbachn — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 16:10:43 +0000

Green infrastructure: New tool by U of T researchers to help construction industry reduce carbon footprint

rasbachn Mon, 12/11/2017 - 11:10

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From left, Brenda McCabe, Daman Panesar, Shoshanna Saxe, Heather MacLean and Daniel Posen of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (photo by Tyler Irving)

Tyler Irving

Topic

City & Culture

Environment

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Greenhouse Gas

Infrastructure

A team of researchers from the ��߲ݴ�ý is partnering with the construction industry to help reduce the carbon footprint of buildings, bridges, public transit and other major infrastructure projects.

“What we’re building is a decision-support tool that can be used in the early stages of design and planning,” says Heather MacLean, a professor in the department of civil engineering who is one of five Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering professors involved in the project. “Ultimately, the goal is to produce infrastructure with much lower greenhouse gas impact.”

While green building certification programs have existed for decades, MacLean and her collaborators – including Brenda McCabe and Daman Panesar, professors of civil engineering, and Daniel Posen and Shoshanna Saxe, assistant professors of civil engineering – point out that these are typically considered only toward the end of the design process, when most major decisions have already been made.

“The decisions that have the most impact are the ones that are made early in the process,” says Saxe, who specializes in analysis of transit infrastructure. “These include how big it’s going to be, or what materials it will be made of. Once those are set, it really puts limits on how low the overall emissions can get.”

Nearly a year ago, the team was approached by EllisDon, a major construction and building services company headquartered in Mississauga. As part of its carbon impact initiative, the company and its partners, including BASF and WSP, are collaborating on projects that aim to elevate efficiency and sustainability in the built environment.

In their early talks, the researchers and industry partners quickly identified science-based decision support in the early stages of project planning as a key strategy for emissions reduction. They plan to analyze data from previously constructed projects and publicly available databases to generate predictive digital tools.

“Large-scale infrastructure projects are complex, consisting of many different construction activities, along with associated inputs of material and energy,” says MacLean. “We don’t yet have good data about the on-site and supply-chain emissions associated with these inputs, especially those specific to the Ontario context. If we can cut down on that uncertainty, it will greatly help inform these types of decisions.”

Read CBC report on massive green construction projects, featuring U of T Scarborough residence

Ontario's Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science announced last week that the project was among those that received funding through the TargetGHG program, administered by Ontario Centres of Excellence, which supports industry-academic collaborations that will help the province meet more aggressive future GHG targets.

“Supporting the efforts of large industries in their quest to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions is an important part of our government’s Climate Change Action Plan,” says Reza Moridi, minister of research, innovation and science. “With the help of our province’s innovative clean-tech companies, the TargetGHG program will help build a prosperous, low carbon economy and create a cleaner, more sustainable future for Ontario.”

In total, the project has attracted more than $2 million in funding from a variety of sources, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) as well as financial and in-kind contributions from the industrial partners.

“Taking steps to reduce the impacts of greenhouse gases and air pollution on our climate and environment is a key priority in Canada,” says Marc Fortin, vice-president, research partnerships at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. “NSERC is proud to partner with Ontario Centres of Excellence to connect Canada’s top researchers and companies to develop innovative clean technologies that will advance environmental sustainability in Canada and improve the health and quality of life of Canadians.”

“This project is a wonderful example of how our researchers leverage strong collaborations with industry to develop next-generation solutions to society’s most pressing challenges, including climate change,” said Ramin Farnood, vice-dean, research at U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “This tool has great potential to enhance the sustainability of major infrastructure not just here in Ontario, but around the world.”

A second U of T Engineering project, focused on installation and testing of fast-charging stations for electric vehicles, also received funding through the TargetGHG program. Led by Professor Reza Iravani, it will be carried out in collaboration with energy storage company eCAMION.

MacLean and her team are already looking to recruit the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who will collect and analyze the data, and continue to work closely with their industrial partners as they move forward.

“It’s exciting to be working with partners that are eager to roll out solutions,” says Posen. “We have had great meetings, and we have a strong sense they are looking to turn this research into practical results.”

What is public transit's effect on the environment? A U of T researcher crunches the numbers

ullahnor — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 15:30:56 +0000

What is public transit's effect on the environment? A U of T researcher crunches the numbers

ullahnor Wed, 03/01/2017 - 10:30

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Professor Shoshanna Saxe analyses the environmental and social impact of large public transit infrastructure projects, equipping policymakers with data as they decide which investments to make (photo by Tyler Irving)

Tyler Irving

Author legacy

Tyler Irving

Topic

Public Transportation

Greenhouse Gas

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Sustainable Cities

Smart Cities

Subheadline

The latest extension of the London Underground “turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag,” and Toronto's Sheppard subway line initially struggled to provide greenhouse gas savings with low ridership

The benefits of building public transit include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, relieving traffic congestion and expanding a growing city. Yet each transit project is unique, and often the immediate environmental benefits can be a mixed bag.

Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Shoshanna Saxe crunches the numbers on existing infrastructure to provide key decision-makers with a reality check on the environmental and social impacts of today’s transit investments.

“Engineers usually aren’t involved in policymaking, and policymakers usually aren’t involved in engineering,” says Saxe. “I’m trying to bridge that gap.”

Read about her work at the Toronto Star

Saxe joined U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering in August 2016.

Before completing her PhD at the University of Cambridge, she spent three years at a major consulting engineering firm in Toronto, working on projects such as the Eglinton Crosstown transit line and the Toronto-York Spadina subway extension.

“I love design – it’s amazing,” she says. “However, when you’re building things that people are going to use, you have to stay well within the limits of what you know for sure. I was curious about questions that we didn’t already know the answers to.”

During her PhD, Saxe conducted a detailed analysis of the London Underground’s extension of the Jubilee Line, which was completed in 1999. She gathered data on the greenhouse gases produced during construction and operation of the line, then used transit and land-use surveys to estimate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to people using the line and living near it. By combining the two, she could calculate the net environmental benefit of that transit project.

“It turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag,” she says. “If you make some optimistic assumptions, you could say that it broke even in terms of greenhouse gas emissions around 2012 or 2013. If you are more pessimistic, you’re looking at a greenhouse gas payback of twice as long.”

Saxe says that the Jubilee Line extension sees approximately 175 million trips per year. On projects where ridership is low, the environmental payback period can be much longer.

Saxe also studied the Sheppard subway line in Toronto and found it initially struggled to provide greenhouse gas savings with a much lower ridership. Over time, the Sheppard Subway Line has benefited from the decreasing emissions associated with electricity in Ontario. The results of the Sheppard Subway study were recently published in the journal Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment.

“If you’re at Don Mills station, and you want to go north, east, or even southeast, the network doesn’t serve you yet,” she says. “We still see people from that area driving 70 per cent of the time so unfortunately there’s just a lot less opportunity for savings.”

Saxe says that her dream project would be to follow a major piece of infrastructure such as a new transit line from conception through construction and use for 20 or 30 years.

“I want to answer questions like: why did we originally build it, how did we originally build it, how did it perform over its lifetime, how did we maintain it and what did it need?” she says. “If we know how our present decision-making affects things decades from now, we can make better decisions.”

Concrete checkup: U of T engineering researcher develops diagnostics for bridges, buildings, roads

ullahnor — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 19:43:28 +0000

Concrete checkup: U of T engineering researcher develops diagnostics for bridges, buildings, roads

ullahnor Fri, 02/17/2017 - 14:43

Cutline

Assistant Professor Fae Azhari's work helps monitor the structural health of crucial infrastructure such as bridges, roads and hydroelectric dams (photo by Roberta Baker)

Marit Mitchell

Author legacy

Marit Mitchell

Topic

Breaking Research

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Canada will spend $125 billion on infrastructure maintenance and expansion in the next 10 years. Assistant Professor Fae Azhari is helping stretch those dollars farther by keeping our buildings, bridges, roads and reservoirs safe and structurally sound for longer.

Azhari’s research focuses on structural health monitoring. Just as you visit the doctor for periodic check-ups, structures need their health checked too – but instead of blood tests and heart rate measurements, engineers usually perform visual inspections and spot-checks with sensors and instruments.

“The problem with visual inspections is that they’re pretty subjective, and with periodic monitoring, you can miss certain events or failures,” says Azhari. “Now we’re moving toward continuous monitoring by incorporating permanent sensors on important structures to get real-time data.”

Degradation or damage suffered between inspections can have catastrophic consequences. In June 2013, a rail bridge just outside of downtown Calgary partially collapsed as a train was passing over it. The train, carrying flammable and toxic liquids, derailed. Emergency measures were taken to prevent the railcars from falling into the Bow River, which was running high with summer floodwater. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada determined that floodwaters had eroded the soil around the bridge’s foundations, causing the collapse. This loss of sediment from around foundational supports is called scour.

“Believe it or not, this happens very often, especially in North America and some Asian countries,” says Azhari. “Scour is a huge problem.”

For her PhD research at the University of California, Davis, Azhari tackled scour from a new angle: she took commercially available sensors that measure dissolved oxygen, typically used for agriculture or biological applications, and used them for sensing scour.

Azhari’s design was to attach a number of oxygen sensors at increasing depths along the buried length of the bridge pier. If the pier is properly buried, the dissolved oxygen levels detected by the sensors should be very low – but as scour erodes the sediments and exposes the sensors to flowing water, the dissolved oxygen levels rise. As scour progresses, more and more sensors become exposed, indicating how badly scour is threatening the bridge’s structural integrity.

She has also worked on concrete sensors, including a design that integrates conductive carbon fibers and nanotubes into concrete, making it a self-sensing material. Measuring the resistance across the material reveals the stresses and strains on it.

“This technology is well-proven in the laboratory, but moving it to the field is a big challenge,” says Azhari.

As she builds her research enterprise, Azhari plans to collaborate across disciplines and with key partners who could benefit from her sensors, as well her analysis and insight into the data that comes from them.

“Transportation infrastructure, utilities, dams, power plants, wind turbines – basically any engineering system – needs maintenance and monitoring,” she says.

“It’s very important to get these sensors from prototype to implementation, and I want to work on that.”

U of T lab retrofit “an historic investment in Canadian science and innovation”: Meric Gertler

lavende4 — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 12:00:37 +0000

U of T lab retrofit “an historic investment in Canadian science and innovation”: Meric Gertler

lavende4 Thu, 07/28/2016 - 08:00

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From left: U of T's Scott Mabury, MPP Han Dong and Meric Gertler with federal innovation minister Navdeep Bains (Johnny Guatto photo)

Jennifer Robinson

Terry Lavender

Author legacy

Terry Lavender with files from Jennifer Robinson

Topic

In what ��߲ݴ�ý President Meric Gertler called “an historic investment in Canadian science and innovation,” the federal and provincial governments are joining with the university to provide almost $190 million to upgrade nearly half of U of T’s research labs over the next two years.

The announcement of the Lab Innovation for Toronto (LIFT) project was made this morning at U of T’s Medical Sciences Building by President Gertler, federal innovation, science and economic development minister Navdeep Bains and science minister Kirsty Duncan, and provincial ministers Deb Matthews and Reza Moridi. The university will provide $91.8 million, while the federal and provincial governments will contribute $83.7 million and $14.3 million respectively for a total of $189.8 million.

“These investments will help us attract and retain talent from around the world and across the country. It’s really critical,” President Gertler told reporters after the announcement. “We’re very well known as a research powerhouse but, as the ministers have said, if the [lab research] space is substandard it limits what this talent and faculty and student body can do. By modernizing that space the sky is really the limit.”

The LIFT project will lead to the renewal of 47 per cent of U of T’s research space, said Scott Mabury, vice-president operations. The labs to be renovated by the project are on average 50 years old and comprise more than 50,000 square metres of inefficient space, he said. Work has already begun and will be complete by the spring of 2018.

Using a square metre as a prop, he gave an impromptu lesson in what the scale of the infrastructure project really means. If you add up the current inefficient lab space, he said, it’s equivalent in total size to 15 soccer pitches. And, if U of T was building all-new labs instead of rejuvenating existing facilities, the total cost per square metre would be approximately $12,000, totaling close to $650 million.

“The renovations will modernize U of T’s research labs to increase usable space and enhance the quality of the research and learning environment,” Mabury said. “They will also improve air handling, climate, and electrical systems.”

Read about the impact at U of T Scarborough

The facilities to be renovated include not only medical, dental, biology, chemistry and engineering labs, but also include a former horse barn north of Toronto now used for ecological research, a green roof on the historic 1 Spadina Avenue building (the new home of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design), an electro-acoustic music studio at the Faculty of Music and many others. For example, at the ��߲ݴ�ý Scarborough, the campus vivarium and the S-Wing research labs will undergo $17.8 million in renovations, while the ��߲ݴ�ý Mississauga’s Davis Building will get a $17.1 million upgrade.

In total, 546 labs will be fully renovated, providing state-of-the-art research facilities to an estimated 1,100 researchers and 5,500 students.

Read about the impact on Engineering

Mario Ostrowski is one of the researchers affected. A renowned HIV scientist affiliated with St. Michael’s Hospital and U of T’s Faculty of Medicine, Ostrowski says there is fierce competition among research institutions for graduate students and post-docs. State-of-the-art labs will help U of T recruit the best and the brightest students, he said, and will also inspire existing researchers and students to greater achievements.

“Just like great architecture inspires people every day to achieve excellence, if you’ve got a nice lab that’s state of the art, rather than something old and decrepit that’s falling apart, it inspires and stimulates people to produce excellence.”

Read about the impact on Medicine

U of T urban experts on federal budget: a key moment to reinvest in this next-generation infrastructure

sgupta — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 09:37:00 +0000

U of T urban experts on federal budget: a key moment to reinvest in this next-generation infrastructure sgupta Thu, 03/24/2016 - 05:37

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Photo by Sean_Marshall via Flickr

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Subheadline

Investment marks a pivotal shift toward preparing Canada for a future that will see an increased urban population, says Matthew Siemiatycki

With the federal budget released this week, many urban experts are happy that long-needed infrastructure projects – from transit upgrades to repairs at public housing facilities – will finally get the attention they deserve.

But with new money coming in to municipalities, Associate Professor Matthew Siemiatycki of geography warns now is the time to plan and use evidence to choose the right projects, not allow politics to drive that selection.

U of T’s Global Cities Institute and its sister organization the World Council on City Data, both led by Professor Patricia McCarney, have been actively collecting data which can be used to compare Toronto to urban centres around the world.

McCarney spoke to U of T News writer Noreen Ahmed-Ullah about how standardized data gathered and analyzed by her and other experts at WCCD can actually help city officials better plan what infrastructure projects deserve the most dollars.

You’ve talked often about the neglected infrastructure needs of the city. Are you happy the federal government has allocated money for these projects?
MS: The announcement in the budget of $11.9 billion of new money for infrastructure over 5 years represents an initial down payment on the vast need for spending on urban infrastructure across the country.

The role of municipalities in providing infrastructure has risen over the years while they collect the smallest share of all tax dollars. So they are really facing a crunch. In the meantime, our infrastructure has become rundown. A lot of it was built in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s and so now it’s getting old. It needs to be updated, upgraded and just properly maintained. We’ve missed a generation of investments, both in the capital stock we have now and in expanding to meet the needs of the 21st century economy. This is a key moment to start reinvesting in this next-generation infrastructure.

The federal government is identifying high level goals that they want to target for investment, including public transit, affordable housing and in green infrastructure. So those are the key three categories, and then infrastructure in Indigenous communities is also an area where we will see a high level of investment because there’s need in those areas as well. The federal government has tried to set broad parameters in terms of the target areas for spending. What the municipalities are looking for is more discretion in terms of how they use the money.

Can you point to projects that need immediate attention?
MS: There’s a critical need for maintenance. These are the unsexy projects, the infrastructure that is not necessarily seen but has been in place and supporting our society and economy for 50 years and now that needs to be upgraded.

The first place we’re going to see investment is in these critical projects, upgrades to things like sewers, water mains, public transit and social housing facilities. For transit in Toronto, for example, the TTC needs a whole new subway signalling system than the one that’s been in place for a number of decades.

It’s showing its age in terms of how frequently and reliably the trains can be run. For affordable housing, right across the country, public housing has fallen into disrepair. School infrastructure is also in pretty rough shape. And there is an urgent need for investment in water, housing, education and social infrastructure in Indigenous communities.

These are all the types of investments that are critically important, but we’ve been deferring for years. The backlogs on all of these infrastructure sectors are in the tens of billions of dollars. The budget announcement of $11.9 billion of new money to be spent on infrastructure over the next 5 years represents an initial funding envelope to make a quick start on the most immediate priorities.

It is not nearly enough to meet the vast infrastructure needs of a country the size of Canada, but it’s a start. Ideally you’re going to start to see funding for the bigger, new infrastructure projects start to roll out in the coming years.

What is your advice to cities like Toronto?
MS: For operation and maintenance, aim to fill the most pressing needs first. But for bigger newer projects, selection needs to be done based on careful evidence based decision-making. What we find is that when it comes to infrastructure, some of the time decision makers use great evidence to make decisions.

And other times, decisions are much more ad hoc, much more politically motivated. Governments need to be consistent in using quality evidence to make sure that they’re picking the right projects because if they don’t, the risk is that the money is not well spent, it doesn’t deliver the desired economic, environmental or social benefits, and then the project costs add to the overall debt burden that has to be repaid. Worst of all, governments still have to operate and maintain the infrastructure that’s being built, even if it hasn’t delivered much public benefit. That can be a long time drag on government budgets and the economy.

How should cities determine the best projects? Look at data? Hold public hearings?
MS: It’s both. It’s about engaging with stakeholders and the broader community, which is now a common feature of the decision-making process. This budget was broadly consultative. That’s a positive step. You have to engage communities.

Then, you have to be mixing community input with very careful studies of what the benefits of proposed projects are actually going to be. Infrastructure is a long-term investment. And if you get it wrong, the costs really multiply over time. You have the missed opportunity. You have the debt that you’ve now taken on, and you have the long-term operating and maintenance costs that start to crowd out money for other opportunities.

I agree with the sectors that have been targeted for investment – transit, affordable housing, green infrastructure, infrastructure in Indigenous communities. Now what I’ll be looking to see is whether the actual specific projects being delivered are selected based on rigorous evidence. We need to make sure we’re picking the right projects and delivering them well. We need to become much more systematic in how we make decisions to ensure we’re making the right choices and picking projects that are going to deliver the best long-term benefits.

How can data like that generated by U of T-affiliated World Council on City Data (WCCD) help municipalities make decision on which projects to fund?
PM: We see our data as driving more evidence-based decision-making by leaders, and building transparency in these decisions. The data also informs citizens on performance in service delivery, together with outcomes from that investment.

High caliber city data facilitates meaningful dialogue between all levels of government – a dialogue that is essential following this unprecedented investment in infrastructure. So for example, Toronto is largely considered by many of its inhabitants to be an inefficient city when it comes to transportation. But through WCCD’s data, we learn that 54 per cent of commuters are using other means to travel to work besides a personal vehicle. We trail Boston at 62 per cent and London at 74 per cent, but we’re not as bad as Los Angeles, where only 27 per cent of commuters are using alternative means of travel besides their cars.

So how can Toronto get to the level of London, for example? Our data, which comes from the first international standard for sustainable cities, which we began developing at U of T in 2008—can help city officials and interested citizens easily compare cities to understand what exactly was implemented in London to get to that number. Moreover, the data will allow decision makers at all levels of government to speak to each other about targeting infrastructure investment in areas that need it most.

Does this budget signal that Canada has become an urban nation?
PM: Undeniably, Canada is already an urban nation – with approximately 83 per cent of our population living in cities – but this budget does signal a strong and clear investment in the future of our cities, not only the inhabitants, but the brick and mortar infrastructure that underpins a functioning city. With aging infrastructure across the country, this investment marks a pivotal shift by the Trudeau government toward preparing this country for a future that will see an increased urban population, ideally supported by smart, sustainable and resilient infrastructure.

Photo above by Sean_Marshall via Flickr

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Five ways cities can avoid cost overruns on infrastructure: Matti Siemiatycki

sgupta — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 11:33:59 +0000

Five ways cities can avoid cost overruns on infrastructure: Matti Siemiatycki sgupta Thu, 01/21/2016 - 06:33

Cutline

The report cites cost overruns for major projects such as the overhaul of Union Station in Toronto and the construction of Lansdowne Park Stadium in Ottawa (photo by Neil Howard via flickr)

Alan Christie

Author legacy

Alan Christie

Topic

City & Culture

See the complete report

The report lists some very public examples of cost overruns: the construction of the Spadina subway extension; the redevelopment of Union Station; the purchase of new TTC streetcars; the revitalization of Nathan Phillips Square; the upgrading of Queen’s Quay Boulevard; the building of new city halls in Vaughan and Guelph and the construction of Lansdowne Park Stadium in Ottawa.

(Image below of new streetcars by wyliepoon via flickr)

“Poorly executed public works can burden governments with hundreds of millions of dollars in unexpected expenses, put the financial viability of projects at risk and exacerbate construction related disruptions for residents and businesses,” the report states.

Siemiatycki suggested five remedies for city officials to consider:

Improved performance monitoring, reporting and information sharing.
Government tracking of the best-performing companies and contractors to ensure more predictable outcomes.
Better training of staff overseeing projects in management skills such as enforcing contracts and resolving disputes.
Drawing on more precise forecasting techniques based on data about previous projects.
Explore public-private partnerships to make it easier to control costs and enforce deadlines.

Siemiatycki noted that cost overruns “really have the potential to undermine the level of support from the public for these big, critically important projects. If people can’t believe that governments can deliver these projects effectively, then they won’t support them.”

If governments keep their promises to fund infrastructure projects, “we will be heading into the greatest period of spending in Canadian history,” Siemiatycki said. The federal government is promising major funding which could come in the spring budget or even sooner. Toronto Mayor John Tory is proposing a special property tax levy to help fund infrastructure projects.

Public/private partnerships (P3s) are “essentially a model to transfer risk from the public sector to the private sector, especially around construction. The government buys insurance against the cost of the project escalating and that can be a real benefit for major projects. But the government pays a significant premium on the front end to ensure cost certainty.”

Siemiatycki stressed that cost overruns “don’t just only plague public sector projects. Look at the oil sands, energy projects in the private sector. They demonstrate many of the same phenomena as government. This is a much broader challenge.”

(Visit flickr to see the original of the photo of Union Station)

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Mowat Centre: cities need a bigger say in infrastructure

sgupta — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 14:26:20 +0000

Mowat Centre: cities need a bigger say in infrastructure sgupta Mon, 11/30/2015 - 09:26

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Report recommends a role for municipalities in infrastructure spending. (Photo by Ross G. Strachan via Flickr.)

Alan Christie

Author legacy

Alan Christie

Features

Mowat Centre

Infrastructure

Subheadline

Report recommends more flexibility in raising revenue

A new Mowat Centre report offers guiding principles to the federal government on helping municipalities through spending on infrastructure – not just handing out money but being strategic about it.

The report, titled From the Ground Up: The Role of Local Governments in Building Canada’s Economic Infrastructure Network, argues that while commitments from the new government in Ottawa to double infrastructure spending are promising, it is crucial to act strategically and “get the most out of each dollar spent.”

Sara Ditta, author of the report, told U of T News that infrastructure spending has suffered from a “fragmented” approach and that she hopes to “change the conversation a little.” The Mowat Centre is an independent public think tank located at the School of Public Policy & Governance at U of T.

In the 1950s, the federal government owned the most infrastructure while municipal governments owned the least. That has changed significantly.

The federal government now owns 12 per cent while local governments account for 51 per cent (provincial governments own the rest). Locally-owned infrastructure includes roads, bridges and other means of connecting broader trade networks.

“These are crucial parts of the system for delivering goods and services to and from Canada,” the report says. “A port, airport or international hub is likely to be as efficient and effective as the infrastructure to which it is connected – much of which is owned, operated and maintained by local governments.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is committed to giving Canadian municipalities a voice in making decisions, something critics say has been lacking for several years.

The report states that “local insights are often overlooked” by other levels of government and that municipalities have “limited opportunities to contribute to discussions on strategic infrastructure investments of national importance.” Local governments can provide significant knowledge and expertise in this area.

Infrastructure “is closely tied to productivity and quality of life in several ways,” the report states. Congestion, it suggests, is costing about $15 billion a year, or nearly one per cent of Canada’s GDP. Poor infrastructure results in increased costs and decreased returns on investment. All this can be ultimately detrimental to Canada’s economic prosperity.

One of the barriers municipalities have to overcome is the lack of fiscal tools to fund infrastructure. “Local governments are forced to raise funds primarily through property taxes,” the report says, “which are an inflexible and inefficient way to raise revenue.” Municipalities are estimated to receive only eight cents of every tax dollar raised across the country.

“It is considered unrealistic to expect to close local infrastructure funding gaps with such a strong reliance on property taxes,” the report continues. “Other sources of tax revenue by local governments in other countries to fund infrastructure projects include income taxes, consumption taxes, business taxes, tourist taxes and vehicle registration taxes.”

New revenue tools have been a topic of discussion at recent conferences at U of T, including one involving Toronto city manager Peter Wallace and President Meric Gertler, where Anne Golden, a U of T alumna and former head of the United Way of Greater Toronto, suggested raising revenue for transit through a city sales tax.

The Mowat report does not go as far as recommending a sales tax, but says that new mechanisms are needed to raise revenue and fund infrastructure projects strategically to ensure that public dollars go further.

“A first step,” the report suggests, “would be to look at new models already being used in provinces like Manitoba, which dedicated a portion of its provincial sales tax to infrastructure projects.”

(See the original of the above photo at Flickr.)

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Mowat Centre: cities need a bigger say in infrastructure