Google map showing downtown section of Queen’s Rd. from Main St. to Fairfield Rd. that would be reconstructed during the 5-year plan

Sackville Town Council has approved a 5-year plan for the reconstruction of the downtown sections of Queens Road as well as repaving the highway all the way to the town limits.

If the New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI) also approves it, the 5-year plan would cost more than $3.3 million.

DTI’s share would be just over $1.9 million with the town contributing just over $1.4 million.

Town Engineer Dwayne Acton says the plan would be carried out in stages with phase one, the reconstruction of Queen’s Road from Main Street to Richardson Street, taking place next year.

He explains that reconstructing the road would mean replacing outmoded and undersized water and sewer lines as well as the storm drainage system.

Acton says some of the pipes underneath Queens Road date from the 1930s.

The first year of reconstruction would cost a total of $880,000 and would be followed by a less expensive year of repaving farther away from downtown that would cost $352,000.

In 2023, the town would carry out phase two, reconstructing Queens Road from Richardson to Salem, followed by a lighter year of paving to the town limits in 2024.

Phase three, in 2025, would involve the reconstruction of Queens Road to just past Fairfield Road.

Table shows alternating years of Queens Rd. reconstruction and repaving. To see the town’s version of this table, click here

When Councillor Bruce Phinney asked Acton what percentage of the town’s aging infrastructure still needed to be replaced, the town engineer said he couldn’t come up with an exact figure, but the percentage is coming down.

“If you look at the streets that we’ve been able to do even over the last 10 years, you know, Park Street, Bridge Street, Main Street’s been all done…Lorne Street’s all done, so we’re working away at them,” Acton said.

“There are a lot of streets out there that still have utilities that were installed in the 30s and the 60s, you know, Richardson, Union, Landsdowne, those are all streets that are on the list,” he added.

Cattail project approved

As expected, town council unanimously approved spending more than $390,000 at its meeting on Monday for major improvements to the Cattail Ridge/Highway 106 roadway including the installation of sidewalks, curbs and storm sewers from Bridge Street to Robson Avenue.

The New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure will pay a total of $273,300 for the project near TransCanada Exit 506 with the town contributing the remaining $117,600.

Note: The tentative 5-year plan for Queens Road as well as the work on Cattail Ridge are cost-shared with the province because the reconstruction and resurfacing is occurring on a designated provincial highway, Route 106. Within Sackville town limits, the highway is known by the local street names Cattail Ridge, Bridge Street, Main Street and Queens Road, but signs indicate that it’s also provincial highway 106, so both the municipality and the province share the costs of maintaining it.