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Originally Posted by Taeolas
I wonder, if the clover leafs were removed from Westmoreland, if they would make Westmoreland 2 lanes coming up onto the bridge (northbound). That is something they did a couple of years ago during the flooding, when the Smythe street onramp loop was closed off due to the flooding, and traffic flowed surprisingly well. With the proposal, Smythe street traffic going to the bridge would likely be flowing mainly Brunswick or King to Westmoreland anyways, so the extra capacity would probably be needed. The other onramp from St Anne's would then likely need to become a merge instead of having its own lane.
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I think it's more likely that traffic would shift over to Regent rather than Westmorland. So if you're coming from uptown and going to the Northside you'd probably choose to take Regent, rather than coming down Smythe and having to go over to Westmorland.
Either that, or you'd take the eventual third bridge that would be located somewhat upriver.
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As for Mactaquac, I'm pretty sure the dam isn't going anywhere, not in the next 10-20 years at least, unless something really catastrophic happens. Part of the reason flooding has been worse since the dam is because of global warming, and because we have so much downtown now, leaving less room for the water to go. And one of our worst floods is still pre-dam IIRC. That sewer work they did on St Anne's last fall is supposed to help with the overall drainage of downtown. I believe they are hopeful that Brunswick street in particular won't flood in the future. That was always a strange area to flood considering how far it is from the river compared to the other flood areas.
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Brunswick Street is just the low point of downtown, just how Winslow Street is the low point of St. Anne's Point. The flooding in those areas is caused moreso by the storm sewers backing up when the river is high. I do know that the city did install back flow valves in the Winslow Street area, so in theory that should mitigate the flood risk quite a bit.