The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by mylesmalley

Is part of the issue here that Vitalité has one major hospital but Horizon operates three? I have no idea how their respective budgets work and doubtless there is politics, but when looking at capital infrastructure spending Horizon has to share the love.

This is unquestionably true. The CHU Dumont only really has the Chaleur Regional Hospital as a competitor in the Vitalite Network, but there is no question that the Dumont is the top dog (main teaching hospital for the francophone medical school, major oncology research centre etc).

Meanwhile, on the anglophone side, the love has to be spread amongst three different major hospitals, while also not forgetting the URVH in Waterville and the Miramichi Regional Hospital. The SJRH in Saint John is the top dog because of the affiliated medical school down there. The Moncton Hospital traditionally has been the #2 hospital in the province, but at least in terms of prestige, we now seem to be #3 (behind the Dumont), with the Chalmers Hospital in Freddy increasingly nipping at our heels.

This is frustrating and demoralizing to those of us who work at the Moncton Hospital. In reality, we still have all the tertiary care services at the hospital that we always have had (neurosurgery, medical oncology, adolescent psychiatry, neonatal intensive care) and still have major concentrations in trauma/emergency medicine, orthopaedics, interventional radiology, obstetrical care etc, and we remain larger and busier than the GDH, but we seem to be sliding into senescence. It is increasingly difficult to acquire new (or even replacement) equipment, any hospital expansion plans are either shelved or if they are approved, tend to be much less expansive than they should be (example - the new oncology wing does not have any office space for the oncologists).

The Moncton Hospital in many ways is still #2 in the province, but it is not difficult looking 10-15 years down the road and seeing us being #4 instead.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Headline from the T&T online site:

Industrial Parks Track Towards Record Despite Pandemic


Aerial photo of the main MID park

Further to the above, I have perused the full article, and MID expects to approve five sales transactions on lots in the city industrial parks before the end of September. One of these transactions will be by the end of July, and will involve a new manufacturer, creating 50 new jobs. Another two projected land sales will be in the MID West park. Some of the companies involved will be new to the Maritimes.

[MonctonRad]

Despite my grumblings on the previous page about lack of progress at the Moncton Hospital, I noticed an excavator on site this morning as well as construction fencing, so I presume the new Maternal/Fetal Medicine/NNICU wing is now under construction.

If I recall, this is a $30-40M project.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Despite my grumblings on the previous page about lack of progress at the Moncton Hospital, I noticed an excavator on site this morning as well as construction fencing, so I presume the new Maternal/Fetal Medicine/NNICU wing is now under construction.

If I recall, this is a $30-40M project.

I wonder if the Dumont getting a parking garage gives any hope for the Moncton hospital to get one. Ideally IMO they would build one across the street, have a tunnel across to the lobby. This would also involve giving the lobby a badly needed upgrade as well.

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

I wonder if the Dumont getting a parking garage gives any hope for the Moncton hospital to get one. Ideally IMO they would build one across the street, have a tunnel across to the lobby. This would also involve giving the lobby a badly needed upgrade as well.

This is something that has boggled me for some time. I know parking garages are tough to recoup investment in but this is one of those cases I'm sure it'd work if someone could come up with 20m or so in capital. Those lots are some of the busiest in Moncton. I know there was some push-back from houses surrounding the existing lot. But realistically, taking that HUGE surface lot and converting it to a 3-storey structure would leave a lot of room for... *gasp* greenspace at each end of the block (Arden end, Connaught end).

There are three cross-walks (one lit) on MacBeath between Connaught and Arden and I'd say half of the people don't use them, lol. Add to that staff that are shuttled all the way from UdeM and it makes nothing but sense.

[KnoxfordGuy]

Deleted comment.

[Ammn_guy]

Its very visable that Dumont seems to always be under constuction with very elaborate, large additions, meanwhile moncton gets the the cheapest options possible.

Same in the school systems.. francophone schools are announced and under construction usually within months, and have extras like daycares etc.

Anglo schools are announced and dont start for years if at all(forest glen,bessborough,mountain view(renos/replacment), and usually they forget the fields and the playgrounds.

I am honestly not sure if language politics(everyone would love to hype that up) are the issue here or if some management boards/committees are just more efficient/organized and plan better then others, or are better at selling to the politics but the visuals are bad.

[MonctonRad]

From Mayor Dawn Arnold's Linkedin account:

The July Labour Force Survey data released yesterday by StatsCan states that the Moncton CMA continues to lead the country with the lowest unemployment rate – 8.2% for July (down from 9.1% in June). Our employment rate of 60.8 is second highest in the country. And, to put our jobs’ recovery into perspective, the national unemployment rate stood at 10.9% in July. StatsCan also reported that employment in NB has returned to 96.6% of pre-COVID levels (February), “the most complete recovery of all provinces to date.”

[MonctonRad]

Very busy agenda (and associated documentation) for the August PAC meeting for the City of Moncton:

https://www.moncton.ca/lets-do-busin...sory-committee

[b2dam]

Was doing some searching up on schools and came across this
https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/...2020-21QBL.pdf

Anyone know what it is? I see there is a mention of a new "Metro Moncton" high school at he bottom. I assume that is the rumoured high school for the North End?

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by b2dam

Was doing some searching up on schools and came across this
https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/...2020-21QBL.pdf

Anyone know what it is? I see there is a mention of a new "Metro Moncton" high school at he bottom. I assume that is the rumoured high school for the North End?

I think you're right. It'd pretty much have to be the north end high school that has been speculated about.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by b2dam

Was doing some searching up on schools and came across this
https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/...2020-21QBL.pdf

Anyone know what it is? I see there is a mention of a new "Metro Moncton" high school at he bottom. I assume that is the rumoured high school for the North End?

Very interesting to see the proposed new Moncton North anglophone high school on that list.

This however does not presuppose any prioritization, and this proposal may sit on the list for a decade or more, but it is still good to see that the need for this new school has been acknowledged.

[b2dam]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Very interesting to see the proposed new Moncton North anglophone high school on that list.

This however does not presuppose any prioritization, and this proposal may sit on the list for a decade or more, but it is still good to see that the need for this new school has been acknowledged.

It was also interesting to see that Mountain View is listed for a replacement while Forest Glen and Sunny Brae are listed as "rationalization" which I guess means it still in the discussion stages? I know the original plan was to merge the 3 schools.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by b2dam

It was also interesting to see that Mountain View is listed for a replacement while Forest Glen and Sunny Brae are listed as "rationalization" which I guess means it still in the discussion stages? I know the original plan was to merge the 3 schools.

If they are being "rationalized", I would take that to mean that closure of these two schools is planned, with a merger occurring with Mountain View (likely in a new building).

[MonctonRad]

Major Moncton traffic circle may (will be) close(d) for two weeks in September
Province plans to close Route 15 traffic circle to repave area used by 70,000 vehicles daily
Shane Magee · CBC News · Posted: Aug 24, 2020 4:49 PM AT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

The work will see the ramp from Paul Street onto Route 15 extended 170 metres to provide better sight lines from the overpass, Morency-Cormier said.

The staff report says the province also plans to repave the intersection of Botsford Street and Wheeler Boulevard as well as the Route 15 interchange with Paul Street.

The extension of the onramp from Paul Street onto the traffic circle makes my heart swell with joy. The current onramp is waaaay too short and an accident waiting to happen. I refuse to use it and, instead, just drive west on Lewisville to Botsford and get on Highway 15 there. I'm glad to see that they realize there is a problem there.......


Red markings show the extend of where construction work on the Route 15 traffic circle will take place over the coming weeks. (City of Moncton)

[NBNYer]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Major Moncton traffic circle may (will be) close(d) for two weeks in September
Province plans to close Route 15 traffic circle to repave area used by 70,000 vehicles daily

I don't remember the Hall's creek traffic circle ever being in as bad a shape as it is now. The pavement adjacent the Main street spur was nearly completely broken down which prompted a hasty and urgent patchwork earlier this summer.

An interesting tidbit is that 70,000 vehicle per day count quoted in the article was from 2014, I wonder what it is today and what is the traffic circle's rated vehicle count. This is probably wishful thinking but the next time repairs are needed in a few years, I hope some consideration is given to replacement with a proper interchange which would include the Botsford intersection... and some proper highway lighting. The daily backups and full stops on the highways in this part of the city seem to have been worsening in recent years.

[b2dam]

They picked a poor time to start that work. The back to school traffic is already going to be a nightmare with more parents then usual driving their kids.

I assume they will still be working on Shediac road as well.

[Sandbagger]

Extending the Paul St ramp is much needed, but I would have liked to see them also extend the merge lane turning east onto the circle from Botsford. It's like 50ft long and no one uses it, rightly so. It's not enough time to safely merge into Wheeler speed traffic so everyone sits at that yield for the light to change and it always jams up east bound traffic at the Wheeler/Botsford intersection. Seems like there's plenty of space to extend it but they never have.

[MonctonRad]

Agreed.

Ideally, the traffic circle should be de facto three lanes (or 2.5 lanes if you prefer).

The outside lane should be for traffic entering via one access point and leaving the circle via the next exit. For example Paul St -> Wheeler Blvd, Wheeler Blvd -> Main St and Main St/Champlain St -> Paul St.

The middle lane (current outside lane) should be for traffic accessing the circle from Veterans Highway proceeding on to Main St, From Wheeler Blvd proceeding to Champlain St/Veteran Highway, or in general, traffic planning to leave traffic flow two exits down the road.

The inside lane should be for traffic accessing the circle from Veterans Highway proceeding to Champlain or Paul Streets, or for excess traffic flow.

[jonny golden]

I was noticing on Retail Talk & Share there's a discussion about the Ashford project on Highfield & Gordon. The question is whether it's going to be wood frame or concrete construction. Most people think it's going to be wood construction, and there's some criticism of that. In the pictures posted, it looks to me like it will be concrete. There are already concrete pillars with rebar on the first floor.