Florenceville Bridge to close for 5 weekends, starting Friday night and spread over 3 months
Resident frustrated by closures, wishes something could be done about covered bridge
Only one local bridge remains for Florenceville-Bristol residents who need to drive across the St. John River, and now that bridge will see some full weekend closures starting this weekend.
The province says the weekend closures of the Florenceville Bridge on Route 130 were planned to speed up structural repairs so the whole bridge can be used this winter.
But the closures concern resident Diana Wasson.
"I mean, it is a weekend, but things don't close down for the weekend," she said.
"There's a lot of people that still have to go to work and, I mean, both sides of the river, we have businesses … that require people to travel and I also think about, you know, hopefully no bad things happen, like fires or anything."
The Florenceville Bridge will close from Friday at 6 p.m. to Monday at 6 a.m. on the weekends of July 18 to 21, July 25 to 28, Aug. 8 to 11, Aug, 22 to 25 and Oct. 17 to 20.
Florenceville-Bristol drivers used to have two local options for getting across the river. But when the partially covered Old Florenceville Bridge was abruptly shut down in 2020, the Route 130 crossing, which has long been under construction, became the only option.
Pedestrians and cyclists can still use the old bridge, which Wasson said was once "very active."
"It was an easy, close-by means of accessing both sides of the river, and much shorter and much quicker, and very vital, actually, as a historical aspect too.
"I know our representatives — our provincial representatives, our municipal representatives, our federal representatives — I know they all are advocating, but it just seems like … there's no action."
The Department of Transportation said previously that repair estimates for the Old Florenceville Bridge were between $25 million and $45 million, but the department remained open to further discussions about its future.
In the meantime, though, with one local crossing closed indefinitely and the other to be closed for several weekends, there are two detour options.
One requires going to the Hartland crossing, about 19 kilometres one way from the Florenceville Bridge, and the other requires going to Perth-Andover, about 40 kilometres away. Either detour bridge might be closer, depending on where the traveller is coming from.
"I kind of feel like I'm stranded … you know, you can't go back and forth, whether you need to go check on somebody, or whether you need to go purchase something," Wasson said.
"I guess you have to accommodate, you have to make plans, but it certainly will affect everybody in different ways."
Wasson wishes the government had chosen to do the work overnight or for shorter periods of time if possible.
In a statement, Transportation Department spokesperson Jacob MacDonald said the work will involve the use of cranes on the bridge deck to install support brackets underneath the structure.
"These closures are necessary to accelerate repairs and ensure the Florenceville Bridge on Route 130 can reopen to two-lane traffic for the upcoming winter and spring seasons."
Wasson said between the Old Florenceville Bridge closing more than 4½ years ago and the constant construction on the Route 130 crossing, it has been frustrating.
"It just seems like, I don't know, this area has been kind of lost in the shuffle."
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