A Curryville, N.B., resident is frustrated after the road she lives on was once again rendered impassable when heavy rain washed out a culvert.
Helen Horsman, who lives on Albert Mines Road, said the water — remnants of hurricane Ida — tore down fencing on her son’s pasture and caved in part of the road.
She said she looked out her window and noticed the flooding on Thursday afternoon.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, look at the water.’”
Horsman said the culvert has been washed out “four or five times in the last 10 years.”
When it last happened a couple of years ago, she said, the province did a “Band-Aid fix” and put up some concrete barriers, but she wants to see a permanent solution, like a bridge.
“Two of (the barriers) are gone, and over half of the road … you can’t drive over it. I’m even leery to walk over it,” she said.
The Department of Transportation has closed down the road and installed signage to keep people from driving over the damaged roadway.
In order for her to get to Moncton, she has to go through a detour that adds about 20 minutes to the trip, she said. She was also concerned about the impact this would have on buses trying to get students to school.
Province working on it
In an interview, Transportation spokesperson Mark Taylor said the site is now stable and crews have been assessing the damage to establish a timeline of when it can be fixed.
“We understand it’s a frustrating situation on the road right now for motorists, but we appreciate their patience and can assure them that we’re working diligently,” he said.
The province is currently studying the issue, and while they are looking to get the road up and running again in the short term, they are working on getting a long-term fix in place too.
“As you can appreciate, we have a lot of roadways in New Brunswick and we’ve had a lot of weather events in recent years,” said Taylor.
“There’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of work being done, even after hours, to look at how we can best fix roadways so that they are more resilient in the future to future weather events.”
He said he couldn’t share which options the province is considering but “all the options are being evaluated.”
Horsman said she is getting tired of waiting.
“I’m not very happy with them,” she said of the Department of Transportation.