Fredericton - Riverside Realignment and Flood Resilience

pre-construction

The planned NBDTI reconstruction project to raise & reconstruct the interchange at the northern end of the Princess Margaret Bridge into the roundabout is a top priority project for the City of Fredericton. As NBDTI advances this project, the City of Fredericton needs to replace, upgrade, & realign its core municipal infrastructure in coordination with the Provincial work to improve flood resilience in this area of the city. Over the past 50 years, Fredericton has experienced 4 major river flooding events. With climate change impacting sea levels & other factors, communities within the vicinity of St. John River are likely to experience same in years to come. The city’s top roadway infrastructure project identified with NBDTI is the construction of a new roundabout at the north end of the Prince Margaret Bridge where Route #8 intersects Route #105. To construct this roundabout, it is the city’s understanding that the elevation will be raised to over 10 meters to adapt to higher St. John River flood elevations. The upgrade of the ramp system on the north end of the bridge to a roundabout is a critical north-south and east-west link that would improve resiliency to flooding & public safety plus transportation connectivity. The city’s part of the project would involve relocation & upgrade of linear municipal infrastructure to facilitate the roundabout construction. While the NBDTI contract constructs the roundabout, the city would coordinate parallel contract to realign & move water, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, & a lift station in the immediate area. Given the elevation of the existing service system, the new system will be installed at a higher elevation to minimize impacts from flood water inundation while maintaining access to water, the sewer, and protecting area residents. Additionally, municipal roadways will be raised where possible to minimize the impacts of flooding. Project would be coordinated with NBDTI’s advancement of Interchange improvement project.