It\u2019s been called a \u2018never-say-die\u2019 project: a proposal for a pedestrian connection across the divided Trans Canada Highway where it bisects the Trans Canada Trail at the edge of the Sackville Waterfowl Park. The disconnect in the trail and the possible fix for it will be the topic of conversation in Sackville next week, at a meeting featuring trails coordinator for Plan 360, Marc L\u00e9ger, and a group of citizens working on advancing the pedway project.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Dec. 6, from 7-9 p.m., L\u00e9ger is inviting all possible stakeholders, including local business owners and current or would-be trail users, to the Sackville Visitor Information Centre to share and discuss ideas.<\/p>\n
L\u00e9ger works in connecting communities via greenway trails, by providing support to community groups and consulting with municipalities. He\u2019s currently working on a 40 km trail connecting Moncton to Parlee Beach, which itself is part of the much larger Shoreline Trail, running from Alma to Shediac.<\/p>\n
L\u00e9ger says he sees lots of potential in the 66-km segment of the Transcanada Trail between Sackville and Cape Tormentine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes through some really beautiful countryside,\u201d says L\u00e9ger, citing the Tintamarre National Wildlife Area. \u201cIt connects to several communities. It\u2019s the perfect distance for cycle tourism. That 66 kilometers is a really nice sweet spot in terms of what the average cyclist might do in a day, both novice and more advanced cyclists. So it\u2019s a really nice in that regard, it connects a lot of attractions or, or attractions that could be enhanced.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there are issues, and the connection through Sackville is one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is that you\u2019re cut off from that trail with a four-lane highway,\u201d says L\u00e9ger. While some walkers and riders brave the crossing like ATV drivers, crossing one direction of traffic at a time, the crossing is discouraged in signage. Instead people walking or on bikes are directed to the Mallard Drive entrance to the Waterfowl Park, and then up on to Main Street to cross the highway, before heading back down to the trail near Tantramar Regional High School. The effect is discouraging for people to actually use the trail to connect to Sackville.<\/p>\n
Which is why for years groups of residents in Sackville have been making a case for a pedestrian bridge or pedway over the highway. Last December, the most recent incarnation of the group appeared at Sackville town council to update them on progress, and announce a $1 million anonymous donation had been pledged to the project.<\/p>\n
L\u00e9ger calls the project ambitious, but he also believes it could be transformative.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a game changer for that trail and what that trail could mean for the community,\u201d says L\u00e9ger. \u201cHow it will work, how people will use it, how you can create experiences and business opportunities along that corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n
L\u00e9ger says it is cheaper to include active transportation crossings in the plans for divided highways, and in fact his current Parlee Beach trail is making use of under highway connections included in the route 15 highway when it was built. Adding the connections after the fact is more expensive, but even then, L\u00e9ger doesn\u2019t balk at the cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s somewhere in the vicinity of $4 million to make that a reality,\u201d says L\u00e9ger. \u201cIt sounds like a lot of money. But if we look at infrastructure projects, at large, we find very quickly that $4 million is not an insurmountable amount of money for most infrastructure projects. If we were building something minor for vehicles, I guarantee just about any project starts at $4 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
L\u00e9ger credits Sackville residents working on the project for \u201cthinking big\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s such a bad thing about spending that amount of money to make your community better?\u201d he asks. \u201cTo make a safer link to a school, to make a safer link and a more pleasurable link to Silver Lake? What a wonderful asset in your community, that\u2019s just a stone\u2019s throw away from downtown. But like I said, psychologically, it seems much further because you\u2019ve got to get around that highway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trails coordinator not only thinks the spending is justified, but that the timing might be right to make it happen. Projects like the pedway, and greenway trails in general, are getting more recognition as worthy public investments, says L\u00e9ger. There\u2019s the uptick in outdoor recreation and tourism which was already trending before the pandemic supercharged it, and there\u2019s the success of projects like the V\u00e9loroute on the Acadian Peninsula, which L\u00e9ger says helped some tourism operators in the area not only survive the pandemic, but thrive during it.<\/p>\n
While trails have long been acknowledged for health benefits, the tourism potential is only starting to be recognized in New Brunswick. \u201cWhen money is made off a trail, then communities realize its value,\u201d says L\u00e9ger.<\/p>\n
At Tuesday\u2019s meeting, L\u00e9ger says he wants to engage people in a vision for what the trail could be, and use that to create a plan going forward. \u201cQuite honestly, it\u2019s a very selfish pursuit,\u201d says L\u00e9ger. \u201cI\u2019m trying to crowdsource who we have for support, who wants to get involved more.\u201d<\/p>\n
L\u00e9ger is palpably enthusiastic about the potential for trails in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Tantramar well,\u201d says L\u00e9ger. \u201cI think there is massive potential as a trail hub,\u201d pointing to connections from Dorchester to Sackville which he says could be \u201cdramatically improved.\u201d He also says there\u2019s potential in dike trails across the isthmus, especially with major infrastructure investments coming to protect it in the coming years.<\/p>\n
Outside his day job with Plan 360, L\u00e9ger is also volunteer with the Fundy Hiking Trails Association, which manages 100 kilometers of wilderness trail including the Dobson and Fundy Footpath. He points out the organization is self-sustaining through guidebook sales and the contributions of hundreds of volunteers. He says the biggest weakness he sees is what the first question out of the gate is, \u2018how are we going to pay for this?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that\u2019s the question we ask ourselves before we start, don\u2019t even bother starting,\u201d says L\u00e9ger. \u201cThe first question is, what do we want to do? What do we want to achieve? What\u2019s our goal? Start putting in the work, start putting together the plan. No one\u2019s ever going to give you a dime to build a trail, if you don\u2019t know what it is you want to do, and you don\u2019t know where it\u2019s gonna go, and you don\u2019t have a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tantramar residents are invited to join L\u00e9ger and the pedway planning group for a meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Visitor Information Centre on Mallard Drive.<\/p>\n
Listen to the CHMA story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s been called a \u2018never-say-die\u2019 project: a proposal for a pedestrian connection across the divided Trans Canada Highway where it bisects the Trans Canada Trail at the edge of the Sackville Waterfowl Park. The disconnect in the trail and the possible fix for it will be the topic of conversation in Sackville next week, at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":130047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,222,2602],"tags":[21379,21380,3619,14717,21381],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130043"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130064,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130043\/revisions\/130064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130043"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=130043"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=130043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}