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New Brunswick announces $2.4 million for new Tantramar River aboiteau to address flooding issues

A red SUV is seen on a street that has flooded. There is a truck and a red brick building in the distance.
Flooding at Main Street and King on Thursday September 2, 2021. Photo: Tim and Melissa Wilson.
Erica Butler - CHMA - Sackville • NB | 09-05-2023
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The province of New Brunswick has announced $2.4 million in funding for the replacement of the aboiteau that empties into the Tantramar River.

Tantramar engineer Jon Eppell says the news is “very positive… This will facilitate phase 3 of the Lorne Street Stormwater Mitigation project and allow discharge of that stormwater effectively to the river.” The project will see a retention pond created near Fleet Street, along with channels connecting it to the St. James Street pond and draining into the Tantramar River when tide levels allow.

A map showing retention ponds and drainage connections.

Image from presentation to Sackville town council by Pierre Plourde, Englobe, on Tuesday, July 5, 2022.

Project engineer Pierre Plourde told Sackville town council last July that the current aboiteau built in the 1900’s was too small for the task.

The aboiteau replacement is one of 73 projects funded by the province’s Climate Change Fund. A total of $47 million was committed to the fund in this year’s provincial budget, however the estimated total for projects announced last week is $10 million higher, at $57 million. In a news release the department of environment and local government said it expects enough projects to come in under budget to make up for the $10 million gap.

screen cap of text describing Sackville Aboiteaux project for $2.4 million by DTI

Screencap from project descriptions for NB Climate Change Fund 2022-23.

Eppell says he is waiting to hear on the timeline for the construction of the project, which will be done by the department of transportation and infrastructure. The funding was announced for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the contractors for phase 3 of the Lorne Street project have already started work. Beale and Inch began in December in the Pickard Quarry, which was recently purchased from Mount Allison University. The quarry will be used to store up to 20,000 cubic metres of water, with a controlled release structure to be installed by Beale and Inch. Eppell says that quarry work is “scheduled to restart in mid-May and be finished in early August.”

At the same time, Beale and Inch will start working on culvert crossings at Charles Street, Sloane Street, and Crescent Street on the far side of the new Fleet Street retention pond.

“We’re expecting them to start on Crescent Street as early as next week,” says Eppell. The whole floodwater retention and drainage project should be completed by fall, says Eppell.

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