Highways and roads, the most important asset in the province, accounted for 52% of total public infrastructure stock in Manitoba in 2007. The average age of the road network in the province peaked at 18.2 years in the late 1990s, following a long-term ageing trend that started in 1970. Between 2001 and 2007, the average age was reduced from 18.1 years to 17.1 years in the wake of years of larger investments and the discarding of older investments.
However, the province still had the oldest road network in 2007. Expressed as a percentage of useful life, roads in Manitoba have tended to be over the national rate. In 2007, roads in Manitoba had passed 61% of their estimated useful life, compared with a national average of 53%. This was the largest gap for this type of asset among all provinces.