Scoudouc River bridge replacement in the works as Shore-Line trail nears halfway mark
Trail was conceptualized in 2016, and plans now include connecting 12 municipalities in southeast N.B.
The historic steam engine railbed in Shediac has been unused, at least in any official capacity, for decades.
Locals bike and walk along the railbed-turned-trail, but it comes to a dead end when it meets the Scoudouc River.
But that's going to change soon.
"We hope that by the end of next year we have started and hopefully finished converting this," says Marc Leger, regional trails co-ordinator for Plan 360, the land use planning division of the Southeast Regional Service Commission.
The plan is to install a new bridge across the 80-metre span, using the old piers that are still in place.
"It'll be a pretty humble bridge, steel spans, and then it'll be a wooden deck with an observation space at the midway point," says Leger. "Because it's a really pretty view here up and down the river."
'You eat an elephant one bite at a time'
The span will add a piece to what's set to be the Shore-Line Trail, a 170-kilometre trail network connecting every municipality in southeastern New Brunswick.
Phase 1 of the project will start at Fundy National Park, and connect Fundy Albert, Riverview, Moncton, Dieppe, Shediac and Cap Acadie.
Phase 2 will turn that 170 kilometres into 202 kilometres by connecting outlying communities to the trail: Three Rivers, Maple Hills, Salisbury, Straight Shores, Tantramar, and Memramcook.
"Phase 1 is really the spine of the network, and Phase 2 is all these branches out to all the remaining communities," said Leger.
Leger says this project was first conceptualized back in 2016, and work has really kicked off this year.
"We have a commitment over the next 10 years to try to build out our whole regional network, that we'll have a trail connect to every municipality in the region. That's our timeline," he said.
Leger spends much of his time making connections with landowners to try to get permission for the trail to cross their land. Some landowners have concerns about theft or privacy, but Leger says usually he can mitigate their worries.
"Trails bring people into places, and where there's people regularly, you see less trouble because there's eyes on the street," he said.
But every landowner negotiation has to take place individually, and Leger is taking it piece by piece.
"You eat an elephant one bite at a time, and this is kind of one of those projects," he said.
"There's lots of different challenges, but the long and tedious work in this project is finding the space, getting agreements in place. Building the trails is really the easy part."
Connecting broken links
The good news is that many municipalities already have trails, they just aren't connected to each other.
"We really bridge the gaps between the municipalities, the municipal networks that exist today," said Leger.
The Shediac section is a priority to complete because it'll connect people in Moncton to Parlee Beach, a popular destination in the summer.
"We really believe that this is going to be one of the more heavily used segments of the trail," Leger said.
"To be able to bike from, from your home to the beach is a pretty unique experience. From downtown Moncton it'll be about just shy of 40 kilometres. So that's a doable biking distance for a lot of folks, especially where e-bikes are becoming more and more popular."
Leger says the regional service commission has committed to the project financially, but hopes that the provincial and federal government will also commit funds.
A private fundraising campaign will also raise money for "benches and washroom facilities, and all of those other accoutrements that go along... with a great trail experience."
By the end of this summer, Leger estimates that the Shore-Line trail — which may be renamed in the future in consultation with First Nations — will be about 45 per cent complete.
"I always say that the trail is the infrastructure," said Leger. "The product is nature, the product is community, is history, is all of these things."
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