By Judy Cole
Trying to discover who was responsible for abandoning plans to repair the old Florenceville Bridge is like playing the mystery game of Clue.
The River Valley Sun filed a Right to Information Request (RTI) about the historic bridge, and six months later, a response arrived containing hundreds of pages, many heavily redacted. What the public wants to know about the cancelled project appears to be blacked out.
Within the package, the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI) incorrectly states that the bridge was built in 1910. The bridge actually dates back to 1886. There was also no mention of major repair work on the bridge up until 1990.
The court of public opinion surmises that former Premier Blaine Higgs lowered the boom on the repair project to protect his bottom line. If that’s correct, then Higgs pulled the political rug out from under his colleague, Carleton Victoria MLA Margaret Johnson. Despite her disappointment, she kept her seat in the Legislature and continues to lobby to have the bridge returned to service.
The Higgs government issued a request for proposals (RFP) in 2023 for a contractor to undertake major repairs to the bridge, but then backed out when the bids came in at $28 million to $42 million. It could be that the listed conditions were unrealistic and drove up repair costs, but no new RFP was ever issued.
Since then, the province has said little about the bridge’s future. The redacted records suggest a lack of transparency exists within the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.
MLA Johnson joined an official government announcement in October 2023, then returned to the municipal council in June 2024 to deliver the bad news that the repair project had been cancelled. A total of $10 million had been allocated to begin the work. At one point, a Bailey bridge was considered to replace the four steel spans.
In November 2023, former transportation minister Jill Green, an engineer, visited the village. She said one bridge for the village was enough, then pointed to the nearby Route 130 highway bridge.
After the October 2024 election, Johnson asked the Holt government and Transportation Minister Chuck Chiasson to get the project back on track. She says a commitment to fix the bridge was made during the 2024 Liberal election campaign.
Local historian and retired lawyer Gordon Hunter circulated a petition to save the bridge and gathered 4,600 signatures for Johnson to take to the Legislative Assembly.
In April of 2024, Hunter met Higgs in Florenceville-Bristol during the solar eclipse event. He commended the former premier for investing in the provincial museum in Saint John, then reminded him of the need to repair the historic Florenceville bridge.
“I told him: ‘Our history is right down here in the river,’” Hunter said. “That’s our bridge and it’s kept people together on both sides of the river for over 100 years and we’re expecting you to get it fixed.’”
Higgs acknowledged his concerns but made no commitment.
The historic Florenceville bridge is the oldest covered bridge spanning the St. John River system. The province closed the bridge to all vehicle traffic in 2020 for safety after corrosion was reported on the bridge’s steel sections.
The original bridge was entirely wooden and never fully covered. The west end span was covered in 1906, and the east end span in 1907. Then, in 1911, three steel spans were installed in the middle section of the bridge. In 1917-1918, the bridge’s stone-filled wooden piers were replaced with concrete piers and abutments. The west end was replaced by a steel span following a 1932 fire.
Hunter recalls extensive work on the piers in 1990. Extensive repairs to the covered bridge portion were also completed in 2012.
An access road on the west end of the bridge was also upgraded in 2016, when the province invested $300,000 to replace a washed-out culvert with a Bailey bridge at Buttermilk Creek. The town also invested in the upgrade.
Then, in 2019, all vehicle traffic was diverted to the old bridge for several months while major repairs to the Route 130 bridge got underway. There was no warning of the bridge being unsafe, as it carried steady traffic.
In 2020, three months before the old bridge was closed, an overhead barrier was erected on Riverside Drive on the west side to stop heavy truck traffic. The same type of barrier was also installed at the east entrance.
Five years later, hope is fading for residents who want the old bridge repaired and opened to one lane of traffic. Every day, they gaze at the historic bridge along the river and are reminded of the sad legacy of the Higgs government in their community.
Carleton North Mayor Andrew Harvey and council should insist that engineers from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure return to the municipality for a public meeting to provide clear evidence of the bridge’s condition and explain what happened. Inked-out government records do little to allay public concerns.
This past summer, Gordon Hunter and Dr. Clay Marco walked under the old bridge during the drought and examined it from below. The water was so low that they could stand in the middle of the riverbed and look up. Based on their observations, the bridge’s condition may not be as bad as the engineers think.
As the old Florenceville Bridge awaits rescue, repairs to the Hugh John Flemming Bridge in Hartland are slated to begin in 2027. The Route 130 highway bridge restoration project was recently finished after seven years.
Private-sector engineers say the problem is that the province has too many bridges. Because of the cost of ongoing maintenance, the government looks for ways to close them as they age. A retired government engineer explained the province simply can’t afford the luxury of a bridge that offers only one lane of traffic.
What then does the long-term future hold for the Hartland Covered Bridge when covered bridges across the province steadily bite the dust? Meanwhile, New Brunswick is dealing with ballooning debt and a serious health care crisis.
Still, we must ask – at what price do we throw away our history? Florenceville-Bristol is the French fry capital of the world. What would the late Harrison and Wallace McCain say about Florenceville’s historic bridge being abandoned as an eyesore? Impossible! Their mother, Laura McCain, would still be on the phone.
Allison McCain, a director at McCain Foods Ltd., hopes the historic bridge can again serve as an economic tool for the community.
“It’s got some good history,” said McCain. “It’s right in the middle of town and provides a shorter route into the business centre. We employ a lot of people here. The town has to look prosperous to support the investments being made. It works both ways.”
McCain told the River Valley Sun that he is “trying to be optimistic” that the Holt government will make a decision.
“Over a lifetime, $30 million is not bad,” McCain stated. “If we don’t fix it, there’s another cost to tear it down. We can’t just leave it there abandoned to fall down. Sooner or later, there has to be a solution found.”
