from yesterday's T&T
Aging subway needs facelift
Friday, May 03, 2013
Times & Transcript
By: Brent Mazerolle
Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc., CN looking for ideas to spruce up structure
It's more than time to do something about the eyesore that is Moncton's CN subway, and the company has told Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc. it's open to partnering if the community can come up with ideas.
With that in mind, Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc. general manager Anne Poirier Basque says they're looking at re-cladding the rail overpass in something more attractive, and are even open to the possibility of incorporating public art in the structure. Don't hold your breath for a repeat of the shocking pink or community paint-ins of the 1970s.
Poirier Basque says it's time for something more contemporary.
'I think we've gone beyond that,' she said of the era when community groups each year would paint various panels on the bridge in an exercise that was more about community spirit than esthetics. 'We really want it to be something more permanent and more up-to-date. Maybe we can talk about recovering it.' She said the conversation at a Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc. board meeting was initially about looking for ways to discourage panhandling and graffiti beneath the rail bridge. Among the ideas was better lighting, but when Poirier Basque contacted CN, the reply opened the door to more significant improvements to the structure, which will turn 100 years old in 2015.
While frequent inspections over the years have found the bridge to be structurally sound, there are visible cracks and chips in the concrete, rusting metal braces and the usual graffiti.
The last big facelift was done in the early 1990s when CN Rail sandblasted and restored the structure to its original lustre, and installed a waterproof membrane to prevent water from seeping down into it. In recent years, the number of tracks was reduced to just a single line.
For those who might be irked at the thought the railway wouldn't simply pay for a facelift of its own bridge, it's probably worth noting it was the citizens of Moncton who voted in a plebiscite way back in 1914 to build the structure, which replaced an ordinary and inexpensive level crossing at the site.
Poirier Basque said informal conversations with experts in the City of Moncton's engineering department have made it clear there are numerous durable and attractive materials that could re-clad the structure. The nearby rail overpass at Vaughan Harvey Boulevard and the Gunningsville Bridge, for instance, both have faux brick facades that resist graffiti. She did say the Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc. board could also look at the possibility of public art of some sort improving the look of the subway.
In a similar but less ambitious project, students of Moncton's McKenzie College School of Art and Design may soon be improving the appearance of the boarded-off vacant lot where two buildings once stood on Main Street across from the Capitol Theatre before being destroyed by a firebomb in 2000.
Whatever might happen at the subway, nothing is imminent. Everything is just at the talking stage at this point. However, another project still in the talking stage is one on Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc.'s mind as it looks at the subway, she said.
'If we build the events centre (proposed for the Highfield Square property adjacent to the subway), we want the subway to be another attraction in a sense,' she said, noting the possibility of an art walk beneath the rail bridge as but one idea.
Regardless of what is ultimately done with the subway, though, Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc. says something must be done to make it more welcoming to Monctonians and visitors alike.
Personal note - Great idea! Just so long as it isn't pink!! 
photo courtesy of Vintage Moncton.
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