The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[saintjohnirish☘]

I figured the Moncton cathedral was already a national historic site, but good news indeed. It has served as an important symbol for Acadians just as the SJ cathedral has for the Irish in this city. Quite the structure

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...ment-1.4248027

[Scarface]

Originally Posted by saintjohnirish☘

I figured the Moncton cathedral was already a national historic site, but good news indeed. It has served as an important symbol for Acadians just as the SJ cathedral has for the Irish in this city. Quite the structure

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...ment-1.4248027

It seems you're not the only one who believed that. same thing that have seemingly believed properties where listed on the Historical registry when they aren't.

[digitboy]

Originally Posted by L'homard

That's this bad boy, Digit.

http://www.fivefive.ca/

I've been around the block a few times myself but always come back to Moncton to make my home. Glad you felt welcome.

Thanks for the info mister lobster !

[NBNYer]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...ment-1.4255831

Great news for the city. $1.8M to renovate the fisheries building and 30 to 40 jobs moved from Ottawa to Moncton including the creation of a new research centre. The Radio-Canada report mentioned that the lobby of the building will be renovated and include a public exhibit complete will a full Right Whale skeleton!

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by NBNYer

The Radio-Canada report mentioned that the lobby of the building will be renovated and include a public exhibit complete will a full Right Whale skeleton!

Not a big deal. Those things are a dime a dozen this year.

(too soon?)

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Vorkuta

(too soon?)

Maybe.....

Seriously though this is a good news announcement. More research jobs in the region are always welcome, as is also the relocation of 40 positions from DFO in Ottawa. It makes sense to put the Small Craft Harbours Program out into the region that it means the most to. I gather these new positions are high wage (engineering etc).

With ACRI across the street from the Gulf Fisheries Centre, this part of Universite Ave is turning into quite a high end research area,

[josh_cat_eyes]

Back in the late 70's/early 80's when they were building the Shediac 4 lane/Wheeler Blvd, they created a right of way from Wheeler/Champlain/Main across the river and up across Hillsborough road. Does anybody recall what their plans were, if they were ever public. I assume that it was planned and then later cancelled, since they dint usually buy right of ways without a legitimate reason to do so.

[L'homard]

As I remember it. they planned to build a third crossing long, long into the future.
Now, be aware my memory iis very bad at the best of times, but I'm certain I recall reading newspaper stories about a third crossing back in the day, although they too stressed that any third crossing would be in the distant future, if memory serves me right.
They even mused about a causeway, I do believe, with mock-up art showing pleasure boats bombing around the downtown, with a marina.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by L'homard

They even mused about a causeway, I do believe, with mock-up art showing pleasure boats bombing around the downtown, with a marina.

I don't think they will make that mistake again.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I don't think they will make that mistake again.

I've often wondered if the causeway had been built there if there would not have been more backlash when the opened the gates, all of Moncton would have been on the "nice side" of the causeway. They also never would have been able to build the dump on the marsh, which really they shouldn't have been able to do back then either.

[L'homard]

No they wouldn't make that mistake again I;m sure. But if I remember it correctly, they were thinking about it back then.
I do believe there was even an editorial in favour of the idea in the newspaper, including pondering if a causeway would create a source of drinking water for the city - right in the downtown! :lol:

I too have often wondered what would have happened to the river if they had built the original causeway there. I have no doubt we'd have a stagnant, illegal, infillling headpond in our downtown today and for long into the future, maybe forever.

[MonctonRad]

I think there is very little doubt that if the causeway had originally been built downstream, and that if Lake Petitcodiac had fronted on the downtown core, that there would have been very little public or political appetite to tear the causeway out and replace it with a bridge. A downtown Lake Petitcodiac would have been a source of civic pride, not shame......

[Sunnybrae]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I think there is very little doubt that if the causeway had originally been built downstream, and that if Lake Petitcodiac had fronted on the downtown core, that there would have been very little public or political appetite to tear the causeway out and replace it with a bridge. A downtown Lake Petitcodiac would have been a source of civic pride, not shame......

And we wouldn't be spending millions now and would actually have a recreational lake like we use to have.

[L'homard]

You guys are forgetting that study after study showed the headpond (not a lake but a headpond) was filling in more and more each year.
It would have inevitably turned into a marshy, mosquito-infested quagmire with time, and I would bet the same thing would have happened if it had been built downtown.
With each high tide, more and more silt was being deposited ABOVE the causeway. This is often forgotten.

[Ammn_guy]

My father worked for crandall eng back then, If i remember correctly in the grand vision there were potentially going to be 3 causeways.. one eventually further out in dieppe, probably .. chartersville rd ish.. so 3 lakes. I think he even had renderings.. but my parents have since downsized so most of "dads junk" was tossed out.

[Sunnybrae]

Originally Posted by L'homard

With each high tide, more and more silt was being deposited ABOVE the causeway. This is often forgotten.

I didn't realize they were opening the gates during high tide to let water into the headpond. Why wouldn't they only open the gates to release water?

[L'homard]

I too remember the plan for the 3rd one, somewhere between Gauvin Road, Melanson Road or Dover Road.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine dug up this old editorial from 1998, from the T&T. He has a better memory than I and he recalls that in the lead up to the 1998 or 1999 provincial election, the 3rd crossing was essentially a fait accompli, except the three communities never actually asked for one - other priorities took precedence, as he remembers it. There was also disagreement on whether a new crossing should replace the existing bridge or go in at the Wheeler traffic circle, and whether it should be a bridge or a causeway.

Sat Mar 14 1998

Few dispute the need for a third crossing of the Petitcodiac River between Moncton and Riverview. But there is a split between those who would like to see it as an extension of Wheeler Boulevard and those who think a new crossing near the Gunningsville Bridge would be better.

Riverview MLA Al Kavanaugh said yesterday in this newspaper that the political will exists to get the project done, but there is not a united lobby. A united lobby is the key -- if the tri-communities dissolve into another round of petty bickering, causing them to lose sight of the real issue, then the public can only expect more delay and expense rather than a modern bridge in relatively quick order.

Where should the crossing be built? Despite the greater expense, it should go from Halls Creek to Outhouse Point. Simply put, the reason for a bridge is to improve traffic flow and movement in Greater Moncton. By hooking into Wheeler Boulevard, the bridge would do exactly that. Wheeler was built with just this in mind, long-term plans envisaging it being eventually a complete oval. Those plans still make sense. Funneling the traffic into the downtown Moncton area will do nothing to ease congestion or traffic flow. Even with the new riverfront drive, bottlenecks will exist. It may mean fewer cars driving by downtown businesses, yet that is what most of them do now -- drive by. And the riverfront development will attract people in any event. Moreover, Gunningsville Bridge can be maintained and used creatively.

Now is the time for action and a united front. Let's do it right, and for the right reasons -- improved traffic flow and access.

[L'homard]

Originally Posted by Sunnybrae

I didn't realize they were opening the gates during high tide to let water into the headpond. Why wouldn't they only open the gates to release water?

The silt was flowing downstream and stopping at the gates, if my memory serves me.
When they opened the gates as an experiment, it did eventually flush out the silt in the channel, but on each side of the channel the infilling of silt got worse with each high tide, a phenomenon that is expected to continue for many more years to come until the silt banks on each side of the channel are built up high enough above the natural high tide mark, if'n I remember the results of the environmental-impact assessment results correctly.
Ammn Guy, this is where your dad's old papers would come in handy, lol!

[PEI highway guy]

My aunt in Salisbury has a house that is on the petitcodiac. She claims the river is silting in rapidly near her place and she can now see remnants(SP?) of the tidal Bore. This is all due to the gates opening. This has all happened in the last year or so. I wonder if the province realized the effect of the gates opening downriver 12 miles or so away

[L'homard]

This is cut and pasted from the final EIA report:

"In the headpond, sedimentation due to reversing flow through the fishway and the contribution
of sediment upstream of the headpond will continue. Between 1968 and 2003, it is estimated
that 0.5 Mm3
of sedimentation within the headpond can be attributed to these processes. Under
the Status Quo, this sedimentation will continue and would result in an estimated 0.25 Mm3
of
sedimentation by 2025 based on the estimated infilling rate attributable to these processes
since causeway construction. By 2105, it is anticipated that the headpond would reduce in
volume by about 1.25 Mm3
, a reduction in the current headpond volume in the order of 12.5%.
Ultimately over the longer term, these processes will continue into the future and may lead to
the effective loss of the headpond. "


http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/D...ifications.pdf