18 per cent of Cambridge assets are in poor or very poor condition: report

A recently released and approved tool at the City of Cambridge will help guide the maintenance and repair of city-owned assets over the next decade.

The city’s Asset Management Plan takes stock of the $4.8 billion of city-owned assets, detailing the asset’s condition.

An asset can be everything from a road, to a drinking water pipe, to a piece of emergency preparedness equipment and more.

According to the plan, about 62 per cent of city-owned assets are considered to be in good or very good condition, meaning they require little maintenance or upkeep.

A growing percentage of assets are considered to be in poor or very poor condition, up to 18 per cent this year from 11 per cent in 2019. An asset in poor or very poor condition is at risk of causing service disruptions.

The city is planning on investing approximately $890 million over the next decade in repairs, maintenance, and upgrades. They’ll have to work around a roughly $35 million funding gap annually to meet that goal.