[Moncton] St. Bernard Place | 18 Storeys | Proposed

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by PEI highway guy

Living on PEI, BUT raised in Moncton, I wonder after the pandemic how if my former city SJ, freddy, Hfx and PEI continue to grow. So my question is there enough maritime growth to sustain the bigger projects, residential housing that appears to be going on in most areas?

Only through immigration.

Our domestic Maritime birth rate will result in a contracting population, so growth will require both interprovincial and international migration.

Happily, I think both will continue to occur. The Maritimes continue to be a low cost place to live in the country, and people from Ontario and BC are starting to take notice. The lifestyle down here can also be appealing for those other Canadians tiring of hour long commutes to get to and back from work.

On the international front, the federal government has become more supportive to the idea of spreading out immigration across the country, and not just in the country's half dozen larger cities. This is good for the overall national economy. All of the larger cities in the region are benefitting.

[MonctonRad]

Article about St. Bernard Square in the T&T today.

Not too much more than we already knew, but there were two interesting tidbits.

- The townhouse podium is described as having a "brownstone" facade, and this is intended to complement the look of St. Bernard's Church next door.
- The setback of the tower along the front of the podium on Botsford Street is 20 feet, and this is intended so that the view of the front of the church is unobstructed to southbound traffic on Botsford Street.

These two architectural elements were designed with the next door church in mind.

[MonctonianSentinel01]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Article about St. Bernard Square in the T&T today.

Not too much more than we already knew, but there were two interesting tidbits.

- The townhouse podium is described as having a "brownstone" facade, and this is intended to complement the look of St. Bernard's Church next door.
- The setback of the tower along the front of the podium on Botsford Street is 20 feet, and this is intended so that the view of the front of the church is unobstructed to southbound traffic on Botsford Street.

These two architectural elements were designed with the next door church in mind.

Wow! Hats of to them. It is obvious that they are thoughtful, respectful and neighbor friendly in the way that they are entering the neighborhood. This type of synergy is great to see.

[BlackYear]

What an awesome project. Can't wait to see the upper floor plans and pricing. I'm hoping to retire in 5 years. Nice to see so many great options to downsize to in the downtown area.

[NBNYer]

Apparently soil sampling is underway at the St-Bernard Square site.

[MonctonRad]

The city has approved a $935k contract to refurbish Wesley and Victoria Streets adjacent to the St. Bernard Square site. Components of the contract include street reconstruction, water main renewal, sewer renewal and storm sewer installation. Sadly, there is no mention of burial of electrical and communications infrastructure.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The city has approved a $935k contract to refurbish Wesley and Victoria Streets adjacent to the St. Bernard Square site. Components of the contract include street reconstruction, water main renewal, sewer renewal and storm sewer installation. Sadly, there is no mention of burial of electrical and communications infrastructure.

I wonder if that becomes a priority of the province since its owned by NB power.

[Franco401]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

I wonder if that becomes a priority of the province since its owned by NB power.

I don't think the provincial government has to be involved, the city can speak directly with NB Power. This is arguably the biggest advantage of the Crown Corporation model.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Franco401

I don't think the provincial government has to be involved, the city can speak directly with NB Power. This is arguably the biggest advantage of the Crown Corporation model.

Serious question: When they do the upgrades to the water & sewer services, can they simultaneously bury the electrical wires/cables? I'm also thinking about the big St. George Street project that's planned for the future. There's a huge mess of wires/poles all along the street that look terrible.

[L'homard]

They can bury the wires all they want to. But they don't want to because when they need to get at them for repairs, replacement, whatever, the costs are huge compared to overhead wires. I don't blame them. But I would rather see no wires than overhead 8 days a week.
I live in a neighbourhood where they ran the wires down everyone's backyards. Not only that, they put their streetlights on nice, ever lasting concrete poles. Seemed like a good idea I suppose, no wires up and down the streets, and light poles that last decades. Win - win, right? Now the concrete is past its best before date, and every time the power goes out for reasons that require that their trucks get close to those backyard lines, residents end up with huge trucks in their backyards and tire ruts in their lawns for a job that can take twice as long as it would had the lines been on the side of the road.
Seems like a no=brainer to bury the lines, but it is us who pay handsomely down the road for that. As a rate payer, with my rates paying for massive NB POwer debt, do I want buried lines or lower costs? I want buried lines of course. Let my children pay for it. Seems to have worked well these past several decades.

[tmacdougall]

I do not pretend to be an expert in this field but buried wires would avoid many of the environmental issues NB Power deal on a daily basis. I.e. Wind, rain, snow, lightning strikes, etc.

I see this issue similar to the argument for or against roundabouts. Roundabouts make NO SENSE at all it you only look at the upfront costs BUT make complete sense when you factor in the life-time costs.

Originally Posted by L'homard

They can bury the wires all they want to. But they don't want to because when they need to get at them for repairs, replacement, whatever, the costs are huge compared to overhead wires. I don't blame them. But I would rather see no wires than overhead 8 days a week.
I live in a neighbourhood where they ran the wires down everyone's backyards. Not only that, they put their streetlights on nice, ever lasting concrete poles. Seemed like a good idea I suppose, no wires up and down the streets, and light poles that last decades. Win - win, right? Now the concrete is past its best before date, and every time the power goes out for reasons that require that their trucks get close to those backyard lines, residents end up with huge trucks in their backyards and tire ruts in their lawns for a job that can take twice as long as it would had the lines been on the side of the road.
Seems like a no=brainer to bury the lines, but it is us who pay handsomely down the road for that. As a rate payer, with my rates paying for massive NB POwer debt, do I want buried lines or lower costs? I want buried lines of course. Let my children pay for it. Seems to have worked well these past several decades.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by tmacdougall

I do not pretend to be an expert in this field but buried wires would avoid many of the environmental issues NB Power deal on a daily basis. I.e. Wind, rain, snow, lightning strikes, etc.

I see this issue similar to the argument for or against roundabouts. Roundabouts make NO SENSE at all it you only look at the upfront costs BUT make complete sense when you factor in the life-time costs.

Agreed. Buried utilities rarely require repair or maintenance, and disruptions are exceedingly uncommon, but, when repairs are necessary, they will not be cheap or quick.

On the whole, I am a strong proponent of buried utilities, especially in dense urban cores.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Agreed. Buried utilities rarely require repair or maintenance, and disruptions are exceedingly uncommon, but, when repairs are necessary, they will not be cheap or quick.

On the whole, I am a strong proponent of buried utilities, especially in dense urban cores.

My father was a power engineer for the City of Summerside and he told me that the city had no power lines downtown, and had a list of streets to burry power lines in similar to a list of streets to infill ditches or a list of streets that need to be paved. The benefit in Summerside’s case was they owned their own municipal power company. Moncton does not have that luxury.

[jonny golden]

From the 20 Record Street thread - Agree with MonctonRad that we'll see the crane there before we see it at St. Bernard's Square. It looks like Lafford is wanting to get going on their project ASAP. There's workers on the site every time I drive by.

Valdo Grandmaison from Frederic Properties said his aim is to start construction in late Sept. or Oct. I think October is more likely since the city has to upgrade the old clay water & sewer lines on Wesley and Victoria Streets which is slated to happen from August to October.

Two big downtown projects for Moncton with underground parking, filling in vacant land. Just what the city wants - densification, tax base, people living downtown.

[MonctonRad]

So much excavation will be needed for St. Bernard Square, I would not be surprised to not see a crane on site until spring 2022.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

So much excavation will be needed for St. Bernard Square, I would not be surprised to not see a crane on site until spring 2022.

Good point. If I'm not mistaken, the underground parking will be 3 floors deep.

[Monctoncore]

I found out that the Victoria street reconstruction, watermain renewal and sewage separation project will not begin until August 16th with a finishing date of October 12th. So unless they plan to begin digging the underground parking along side the Victoria street renewal, then we may not see them break ground until October or even possibly spring of 2022. This is all just a guess by me as I don’t have any insider information.

https://moncton.maps.arcgis.com/apps...7e3037e8b6cc58

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Monctoncore

I found out that the Victoria street reconstruction, watermain renewal and sewage separation project will not begin until August 16th with a finishing date of October 12th. So unless they plan to begin digging the underground parking along side the Victoria street renewal, then we may not see them break ground until October or even possibly spring of 2022. This is all just a guess by me as I don’t have any insider information.

https://moncton.maps.arcgis.com/apps...7e3037e8b6cc58

Valdo Grandmaison, owner of Frederic Properties Corp. said in February that he hopes to start construction in late Sept. or early Oct. once the city has upgraded the underground services on Victoria and Wesley streets. I hope the city gets the work done on schedule so the developer can get going. It's a major project for Moncton.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

Valdo Grandmaison, owner of Frederic Properties Corp. said in February that he hopes to start construction in late Sept. or early Oct. once the city has upgraded the underground services on Victoria and Wesley streets. I hope the city gets the work done on schedule so the developer can get going. It's a major project for Moncton.

I see no reason why they couldn't start excavation for the three levels of underground parking at the same time as the street and infrastructure improvements on Victoria and Wesley.

I still don't necessarily expect to see the tower crane at St Bernard Square however until next spring.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I see no reason why they couldn't start excavation for the three levels of underground parking at the same time as the street and infrastructure improvements on Victoria and Wesley.

I still don't necessarily expect to see the tower crane at St Bernard Square however until next spring.

I was just thinking the same thing. They could do site prep while the city does the street work. The Record street project got a bunch of materials on site before it was even approved so I don’t see why this project couldn’t do something similar.