The road to success in city infrastructure

From roads to water networks, infrastructure is fundamental to Canadian economic prosperity. Most of Canada’s core infrastructure, however, was built decades ago and is now at risk.

National assessments show that between 30% and 50%1 of public infrastructure assets require significant rehabilitation or replacement— with enough roads in poor condition to get almost halfway to the moon.2

For provinces and local municipalities, this means there is unprecedented pressure to renew infrastructure faster at a greater scale. But making these upgrades is a challenge: The infrastructure deficit in Canada is estimated to be $270 billion.3

The solution is to make more efficient infrastructure improvements using a modern, data-first approach. This can help improve stakeholder collaboration, reduce errors, and complete projects faster. That way, provincial and local authorities can support more efficient use of taxpayer dollars, all while building more sustainable infrastructure for the future.

Maximize taxpayer dollars with a smarter approach to infrastructure upgrades

The benefits

Using a data-driven approach to city infrastructure projects can help:

Streamline infrastructure management and upgrades

Take control of project costs

Optimize asset lifespan and resilience

1 BCG Centre for Canada’s Future 2 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card 3 Bennett Jones

01

02

03

https://www.businessinsider.com/invest-old-school-us-crumbling-infrastructure-ai-industrials-materials-bofa-2024-7 https://web-assets.bcg.com/img-src/canada-15-v9_tcm9-172433.pdf https://bridgingthegap.infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-Bridging-the-Gap-Economic-Study.pdf https://canadianinfrastructure.ca/downloads/canadian-infrastructure-report-card-2019.pdf https://canadianinfrastructure.ca/downloads/canadian-infrastructure-report-card-2019.pdf https://www.bennettjones.com/Insights/Blogs/2025-Canadian-Infrastructure-Trends

01 Streamline infrastructure management and upgrades

Picture this: You’re leveling the ground for a new highway when you discover that a key design flaw hasn’t been addressed. The issue was manually marked up, but this was done in an offline drawing sheet that was only accessible to a single field operations team. Suddenly, construction is delayed for months while you fix the problem. Meanwhile, citizens continue to face increased traffic due to an outdated roadway.

Supercharge collaboration

To avoid these delays, it’s essential to streamline city infrastructure upgrades by ensuring different teams can collaborate more effectively, using data they can trust. This is especially important on complex projects with many moving parts and multiple stakeholders involved. The first step to doing this is to centralize all infrastructure data in a cloud-based common data environment, or CDE. Once data is centralized in a CDE, hundreds of stakeholders can leverage permission-based access to collaborate using a single source of truth. Instead of working with fractured data that’s stored in many places, teams can instantly access all the data they need directly from the CDE stored on servers in Canada. This can help stakeholders monitor quality issues in the field and instantly flag them for the right stakeholder to see. Doing this doesn’t just streamline collaboration, it can also minimize the risk of errors and miscommunications like design flaws, leading to less rework needed on site.

2  |  The road to success in city infrastructure

Smoother project management

Provincial and local authorities can take project planning and efficiency further by utilizing a data-first approach to infrastructure upgrades. This can reduce costs and minimize risks as projects can be managed through every step of an infrastructure asset’s lifecycle:

• Planning—make less risky, data-informed decisions by leveraging historical and real-time data from the CDE for accurate cost estimates and design feasibility assessments.

• Design—save time and reduce the risk of miscommunication by reviewing models and drawings from consultants in the CDE, or use automated or manual clash detection tools to resolve major errors prior to construction.

• Build—monitor RFIs, submittals, and construction progress to resolve problems early, and improve quality in the field with templates, checklists, and reports that standardize project management workflows.

• Operate—reduce future costs by using accurate 3D models and digital twins, which can help you identify signs of wear before they become bigger safety issues.

By utilizing a CDE that contains native Building Information Modelling (BIM) and construction management workflows, you can simplify even the most complex infrastructure projects to deliver on time.

3  |  The road to success in city infrastructure

Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx used a CDE and BIM to help simplify the delivery of the Ontario Line, a new $10.9 billion, 16-kilometer subway line with 15 stations running through the heart of Toronto.

By using a CDE and BIM, all project information could be shared across an international team including more than 500 staff. Project information was connected from a BIM design hub directly into a custom-built geographic information system that anyone could access as their single source of truth. A planning portal also allowed teams to collaborate on the latest 2D alignment, properties, utilities, survey, environmental impacts, and 3D station design files directly on a web-based application that was updated in real time.

Case study: The Ontario Line

4  |  The road to success in city infrastructure

https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/BIM-GIS-one-North-Americas-Largest-Linear-Infrastructure-Projects-2022?msockid=36a5cb98072c61df3c70df0c06826037

In 2016, the Canadian government launched the Investing in Canada Plan, which saw it invest over $168 billion in over 100,000 infrastructure projects, 93% of them now completed or underway.4 The government’s 2025 budget complemented this with the Building Canada Strong plan, which lays out more than $115 billion for infrastructure projects over five years, including billions earmarked for water, wastewater and climate resilience.5

Stay on track

Teams can stay on top of timelines and budgets by taking a data-driven approach to infrastructure upgrades with the help of CDE that consolidates data as well as project and cost management tools in a single end-to- end platform. Creating, managing, and updating project information and schedules can be done all in the same place, which can help ensure every stakeholder is aligned on timelines from early planning through build.

Material takeoff and cost estimates can also be tracked in the design and preconstruction phases. What’s more, teams can even incorporate cost-estimate and bid data to track and forecast costs, change orders, and applications for payment. This can help avoid unnecessary overage or unexpected surprises, so teams can better manage taxpayer dollars.

Despite this investment, however, experts warn that Canada’s infrastructure investment gap remains too wide to close. Statistics Canada estimates that it would take $356.7 billion to replace road or water systems alone,6 while a report from CanInfra shows that Canada’s infrastructure deficit is estimated at anywhere from $110 billion to $270 billion, with the overall consensus being that Canada should be investing significantly more capital in infrastructure to keep up with the backlog of needed repairs.7 Rising costs and interest rates have exacerbated the problem further, making it a constant struggle to keep projects on time while staying within financial constraints.

02 Effectively manage timelines and budgets

4 Government of Canada 5 Water Canada 6 CBC 7 CanInfra

5  |  The road to success in city infrastructure

https://www.businessinsider.com/invest-old-school-us-crumbling-infrastructure-ai-industrials-materials-bofa-2024-7 https://housing-infrastructure.canada.ca/plan/about-invest-apropos-eng.html https://www.watercanada.net/federal-budget-pledges-115b-for-infrastructure-but-water-leaders-say-stronger-water-strategy-still-needed/ https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cost-to-replace-canada-water-road-infrastructure-1.7358394 https://www.caninfra.ca/insights-6

Construction and civil engineering company BAM UK & Ireland used Autodesk as its CDE during its Waterford City Public Infrastructure Project, which required linking Waterford, a town on the south bank of the River Suir, to the river’s north bank. New infrastructure included a new rail transport hub and building a new bridge across the Suir specifically for pedestrians and electric vehicles.

Using a CDE for the Waterford City Infrastructure Project made it so designers, construction managers, and clients could easily access and work from the most up-to-date information regardless of if they were in the office or in the field on a tablet or smartphone. What’s more, because files are stored and logged in the cloud there’s no siloing of data or erroneous duplication. This has reduced the amount of time needed to manage information, letting teams move more quickly and efficiently.

“We don’t have to go to a site to have a conversation with the construction teams,” Simon Tritschler, Principal DPS Support Specialist – Digital Project Solutions at BAM UK & Ireland says. “Almost all conversations occur in the cloud, and there’s a record of them that’s easy to keep. This opens up the transparency on projects and further helps to communicate with our clients without negatively impacting our world.”

Case study: BAM UK & Ireland

6  |  The road to success in city infrastructure

https://www.autodesk.com/blogs/construction/customer-story-bam/ https://www.autodesk.com/blogs/construction/customer-story-bam/

Canada has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieving net-zero by 2050.8 Not only will this impact what infrastructure projects get funded first, it also has an impact on overall eligibility. For example, transport infrastructure projects must demonstrate a carbon reduction impact as a condition of federal infrastructure funding from the Canada Public Transit Fund (CPTF), which has committed ~$3 billion annually from 2026 to public transit and active transportation infrastructure.9

All this now means that local authorities should update their workflows to ensure infrastructure projects can be relied on by future generations for decades to come. After all, many residents will not know what was built most efficiently or at the lowest cost. They will, however, remember the infrastructure that stands the test of time.

Prepare for anything

Using a CDE can help provincial and local authorities build more resilient infrastructure by giving teams access to better data, which is foundational to AI capabilities like predictive maintenance tools. These tools can help teams understand the current state of a city’s infrastructure. For example, by using a tool to track and identify signs of wear and tear, potential equipment failures can be spotted and addressed before they become critical. This can help extend the lifespan of assets like bridges, buildings, or roadways, as well as ensure citizen safety. Agencies that want to supercharge predictive maintenance often rely on a digital twin, or a digital replica of a physical infrastructure asset. Digital twins integrate real-world IoT sensor data with existing assets, facilities, and maintenance management tools. This can enable teams to monitor asset operations or energy usage in real time so that it’s easier to identify potential vulnerabilities or areas that can be optimized for efficiency. Together, these technologies can help infrastructure owners be proactive in planning for future maintenance and operations, as well as test multiple ‘what if’ scenarios to predict how a network of assets might one day react to extreme weather events like fires or floods.

03 Optimize asset lifespan and resilience

8 Government of Canada 9 Government of Canada

7  |  The road to success in city infrastructure

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/weather/climatechange/climate-plan/climate-plan-overview/emissions-reduction-2030.html https://housing-infrastructure.canada.ca/cptf-ftcc/index-eng.html

BIM can also be integrated with AI and geographic information system (GIS) technologies to help teams build the smart cities of the future.

In a smart city, provincial and local authorities would be able to update an asset like a bridge by using accurate geospatial data and machine learning to quickly create hundreds of 3D bridge designs that are cost-effective, fast. Teams could then use augmented and virtual reality visualizations to showcase those designs to city residents for their feedback. Or they can even use AI-based simulations to help show predictions for the social, health, and economic impact of any design changes in the future.

All these things can also help build more trust with the local community. By showing potential infrastructure impact and involving their feedback in designs, provincial and local authorities would be signaling that tax dollars are being used in projects that can improve their quality of life.

A city that’s ready for the future

8  |  The road to success in city infrastructure

The Canadian Society for Civil Engineers recently reported that a concerning amount of Canadian infrastructure is in poor or very poor condition, including enough Canadian roads to get almost halfway to the moon.10

Statistics Canada estimates that it would take $356.7 billion to replace road or water systems alone.11

To mitigate this, the Canadian government is taking action to ensure infrastructure is more resilient...

Through the Investing in Canada Plan, the government has committed over $180 billion over 12 years for infrastructure that benefits Canadians – from public transit to trading ports, broadband networks to energy systems, community services to natural spaces.12 To date, the Plan has invested over $168 billion in over 100,000 projects, 93% of them completed or underway.13

The government’s 2025 budget, Building Canada Strong, also lays out more than $115 billion for infrastructure projects over five years, including billions earmarked for water, wastewater and climate resilience.14

Complementing this, the Canada Infrastructure Bank is mobilizing public and private capital to accelerate large, complex projects in transit, transportation, and green infrastructure.15

The results speak for themselves.

Studies show that Canadian GDP rises $1.43 per every dollar spent on infrastructure investments, resulting in a rise in real wages and providing a higher standard of living for Canadians.16

Every dollar spent on resilience and preparedness saves Canadian communities $6 in post-disaster costs.17

10 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card 11 CBC 12 Government of Canada 13 Government of Canada 14 Water Canada 15 Government of Canada 16 Broadbent Institute 17 Public Safety Canada

The problem?

9  |  The road to success in city infrastructure

https://canadianinfrastructure.ca/downloads/canadian-infrastructure-report-card-2019.pdf https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cost-to-replace-canada-water-road-infrastructure-1.7358394 https://housing-infrastructure.canada.ca/plan/about-invest-apropos-eng.html https://housing-infrastructure.canada.ca/plan/about-invest-apropos-eng.html https://www.watercanada.net/federal-budget-pledges-115b-for-infrastructure-but-water-leaders-say-stronger-water-strategy-still-needed/ https://housing-infrastructure.canada.ca/CIB-BIC/index-eng.html https://www.iuoelocal793.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Broadbent-Study.pdf https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/mrgncy-mngmnt-strtgy/index-en.aspx

Take your city's infrastructure to the next level. Autodesk is ready to be a partner with you to unify your data and workflows so you can

upgrade your infrastructure faster, safer, and with less disruptions.

Autodesk, the Autodesk logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services

offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document

© 2026 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.autodesk.com

Get started

https://boards.autodesk.com/public-infra-canada?token=867f878559___.ZXV3MjpwcmV0emw6YzpvOmE0NjUwMWYwNjQwNzRkYjM3MWRmYjQxODZjMmUzN2JmOjc6MzQxYjo4MTQ4NzFkZTY3MzA2Yzk5YzJhYTBlZmZmYmUyZDMzNGZmZDQ2Y2NmZTE5ZmIwZWZmNzY4NzQ4MDA5NjFmNWJhOmg6VDpG