The City of Fredericton has announced 22 upcoming construction projects set for summer 2018.
City of Fredericton traffic engineer Jonathan Lewis said there will be six major construction projects that will have an impact on traffic, including closures at Saint Anne’s Point Drive, Smythe Street, Forest Hill Road, Lincoln Road, Riverside Drive and Sunset Drive.
“We know there are going to be six that are going to have pretty significant traffic impacts, so we wanted to highlight those six projects in terms of getting people extra notification,” Lewis said.
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Lewis said Saint Anne’s Point Drive will be closed from Queen Street to the lighthouse to pedestrianize Saint Anne’s Point and do a full infrastructure renewal.
He said while some details are still being worked out, it’s likely to be a six- to eight-week closure.
Downtown Fredericton Inc. general manager Bruce McCormack attended the committee meeting on Tuesday. He said because the project list was just released, they haven’t had time to talk to downtown businesses about it yet.
McCormack said Regent and Queen streets will likely be one of the first projects started, after the fresh water goes down.
“The scheduling is very important. If we really look at the 22 projects and how they’re going to affect the city, there are going to be some traffic tie-ups over the summer,” McCormack said. “We’re concerned with downtown. We realize that the Regent Street at Queen is a major intersection that feeds northbound traffic in the evening and southbound traffic in the morning, and also the connection, there is part of the larger project which is the historical Garrison District.”
As part of the construction, the fencing around Officer’s Square will also be fixed.
McCormack said the other major concern is the closure at Smythe Street because currently, most traffic that is going northbound either comes down Smythe and onto Riverfront Drive, or comes down to Regent on Riverfront Drive.
“The Smythe Street closure, although it won’t be in the downtown… it’s up on the hill, it will still have detours around it because it is a full closure and it will last a long time — probably four to six weeks. So, that will have a major impact on traffic flows in and out of downtown,” McCormack said.
He said when you look at Queen Street and Smythe Street, there will be implications for downtown businesses, but said there are other ways in and out of the downtown.
Red Rover Craft Cider brand manager Navy Vezina said they’re a little worried about how the construction will impact summer traffic. She said she hopes there is no negative effect on tourism and said parking is already quite an issue downtown.
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“We’re just going to wait and see and hopefully, the City of Fredericton plans accordingly for the fact that a lot of businesses down here do require the summer season to make their overall year, and that tourism in the summer in Fredericton is kind of the biggest thing of the year, and people use Officer’s Square for a lot of different things all throughout the season,” Vezina said.
McCormack said traffic patterns may change, but said there should be no negative impact on any of the capital city’s festivals.
Fredericton Chamber of Commerce CEO Krista Ross said the business community has expressed that construction that can impact business concerns them.
“What we’re hoping is that there will be excellent communication. The key to this will really be to make sure businesses are aware of how it will impact them, and that the City does everything they can to mitigate those impacts,” Ross said.
Ross said it’s also important that the public is also aware of where construction will be taking place.
“We never want to be in a situation where people say, ‘Oh, I’m just going to avoid that street’, or ‘I’m going to avoid that area or that business because I can’t get in and out,'” Ross said. “So we have to make it a point to ensure that people are aware of how they can get to businesses.”
Lewis said people should start planning ahead now. He said asking for flexible work hours to avoid travel at peak times during construction would be helpful.
“If you can avoid travelling between 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in the morning, and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the evening, it can really make a pretty significant difference on traffic flow,” Lewis said.
The projects were presented at the City’s Transportation Committee meeting on Tuesday. Lewis said more details will be available on March 1, along with a full construction map.
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