What’s happening with Miramichi’s Centennial Bridge?

If you’re passing through Mayor Machine, chances are you’re headed across this landmark bridge. It’s a busy link between the provinces North and South, with upwards of 15,000 vehicles passing through each day. As you can see with all the scaffolding, it’s going through a big refurbishment. Locals have been bracing for a total closure of the bridge this summer to allow for construction, but they found out that closure is getting delayed. It’s extremely disappointing, I feel that. We’re in the north and it appears that we’re not Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John and those regions seem to be always getting the the upgrades and it’s just OK here in Miramichi. We are hoping that they will figure it out soon and communicate that, of course to the City Council and staff, but also to the broader community. Hopefully that, you know, this delay and closure is going to give the city more time to make. You know, proper plans, we do only have one bridge in memory she that we would be able to use other than the one that’s being worked on. So it’s going to cause a lot of, you know, congestion on the King George Hwy. and the other routes around. The province. Says it understands a total closure will be disruptive and wants to try and minimize that. It says the delay will allow for some further planning for what all lanes close. The good news is that the upgrades will make the bridge last a lot longer. It’s getting repairs to the steel frame foundation. A new concrete deck and a new sidewalk. And with those improvements, the lifespan of the bridge could be extended another 50 to 60 years. This project was actually originally slated to be completed years ago. And I think the community is maybe getting a bit tired of living with uncertainty. And I think from this point, what we’d like to have is just a sense of of that timeline of when this project will be completed and how so we can plan for those closures, whatever they will be, but also so that we can anticipate when it will all be done.