Detour denied: Fredericton driver questions blocked road
Concrete barrier blocks a detour used the last time Fredericton's Lincoln Road was closed for construction
A concrete barricade is causing headaches for some Fredericton drivers.
With a portion of Lincoln Road closed to traffic, some drivers expected to skirt through Innovation Drive and Fredericton's experimental farm as a shortcut.
After all, that was the official detour two years ago, when Lincoln Road was last shut down for construction work.
April Robinson-Munn, who lives in the area, said she was surprised to find the route blocked off.
"The last time the official detour was up through the farm on Innovation Road," she said.
"So all the neighbours and I started to come this way. And then I got here just as the forklift was pulling away from putting these barriers up, and we can't figure out why."
Instead, drivers have to take Wilsey Road to Vanier Industrial Drive, before joining back up with Lincoln Road.
For people like Robinson-Munn, who lives in the Draco Road neighbourhood, the detour requires backtracking on Lincoln Road and is four kilometres longer than the Innovation Drive shortcut.
Robinson-Munn acknowledges that the extended detour is not the biggest hardship but said it has caused some confusion for drivers.
"It's probably up to three or four minutes longer to go that way. It's n," she said. "It's not a huge amount of time, but I think our concern is kind of the chaos that it's created."
And that chaos has already spilled into her yard, when a frustrated driver took matters into their own hands.
"People get here, they get upset, annoyed, aggravated, a little bit aggressive," Robinson-Munn said.
"Yesterday, we had somebody go down Shepody Lane. There's a gate there, a little path through the field, and they just motored right across our lawn in the middle of the day, across the sidewalk."
A spokesperson for the City of Fredericton told CBC News a city crew put the barricades on Innovation Drive at the request of the federal Fredericton Research and Development Centre, which includes the experimental farm.
The construction has closed a section of Lincoln Road between the new roundabout at Wilsey Road and Innovation Drive. The work being done is a continuation of a project that began in 2023 and includes raising the road to improve flood resiliency, the addition of water, sanitary and storm pipes, and the reinstatement of a sidewalk.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the agency responsible for the research centre, said the barriers were requested after a few close calls with drivers and workers at the farm during the detour two years ago.
"Innovation Road had remained open during the major construction project on Lincoln Road, however this opening resulted in several near accidents between vehicles and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada employees working on the property," spokesperson Cameron Newbigging said in an email.
"In order to ensure a safe work environment for its employees, [the department] asked the city of Fredericton to install barricades to prevent drivers from using the Research Centre as a bypass."
Work on Lincoln Road is expected to take the summer, so Robinson-Munn said she and her neighbours are resigned to the new detour and any confusion that may come with it.
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