Maley Drive Extension: An Affordable Investment that will be Managed in a Fiscally Responsible Manner

The Maley Drive Extension is shovel-ready should the City of Greater Sudbury receive a formal announcement of funding through the Government of Canada.

• Environmental assessments, geotechnical, engineering and design work are complete for Phase One.
• Design and engineering of Phase Two of the Maley Drive Extension are complete.
• The Province of Ontario has committed $26.7 million to Phase One contingent on a one-third cost sharing partnership with the Government of Canada and the City of Greater Sudbury.
• Once a formal announcement has been received from the Government of Canada, the City will seek approval from Greater Sudbury Council to commit $14.5 million to achieve the city’s one-third share of construction costs.
• Tenders can be issued promptly following a federal announcement and multiple contracts will overlap during an expected three to four year construction period, dependent on whether construction starts in the spring or the fall.
• Where construction will start is dependent on the time of year that federal funding is announced, as work must be scheduled based on weather conditions and requirements of environmental approvals.

The Maley Drive Extension is an affordable investment that will be managed in a fiscally responsible manner.

• Construction of Phase One is expected to create 780 jobs and generate an economic stimulus of $88.8 million.
• The City of Greater Sudbury has been budgeting since 2008 to leverage two-thirds funding from Federal and Provincial partners for construction of this project.
• A designated municipal account has already absorbed approximately $5 million in engineering and in design costs for Phase One.
• More than $12.2 million currently remains in the account to permit an immediate start to construction and the City is continuing a practice of allocating $2.3 million annually from the existing roads capital budget to this account.
• The City is prepared to present options for financing the outstanding municipal share of construction, upon the direction of Council.
• Funding from citywide development charges can be applied to the new four-lane road portion of the Maley Drive Extension, from LaSalle Boulevard West to Barry Downe Road, and to the new interchange and associated road widening on Notre Dame Avenue.
• The roads capital budget has been planned and adjusted to 2019, leaving the City with between $34.5 million and $35.9 million annually for additional road construction over the next four years.
• The increase to operating budgets to maintain the new Maley Drive Extension will be partially offset by fewer potholes and other damage to the roadbeds on LaSalle and the Kingsway.
• Property acquisition, estimated at less than one per cent of the total construction cost, is not eligible under the three-way cost sharing partnership and can be absorbed within existing capital reserves.
• The Maley Drive Extension will be built in two phases to expedite available funding at the federal and provincial levels, to reduce the initial municipal capital outlay and to realize immediate benefits of an alternate east-west access route across the City.
• Disadvantages associated with a phased approach to construction are loss of economies of scale, devaluation of the dollar to inflation, some duplication of work, and inability to achieve full benefits of the Extension until completion of the last phase.
• The combined estimate of $150 million for construction of Phase One ($80.1 million) and Phase Two ($70 million) of Maley Drive is higher than an original estimate contained in an April 2014 Development Charges Background Study, prepared by Hemson Consulting Ltd.
• Figures quoted in the Development Charges Study are based on an estimated total project cost of $125 million of which two-thirds funding was estimated from federal and provincial sources, leaving the city with a net municipal cost of $41 million.