Intake pipes [left] running under the dyke beside Sackville’s main sewage lagoons and the two aboiteau gates [right] that feed into the Tantramar River at low tide

Tantramar Town Engineer Jon Eppell says the $3.2 million, provincially funded aboiteau designed to discharge flood water into the Tantramar River was successfully installed by the end of last month and only one more step remains before the $13.8 million Lorne Street flood control project is complete.

He explains that earlier plans called for two pedestrian bridges to close gaps around the third retention pond dug last year in the Sackville industrial park.

But the bridges had to be dropped from the plans because of rising costs.

Eppell says that the town has now applied for about $100,000 from the province’s climate change fund to build those pedestrian bridges.

“We’re hoping very soon to hear one way or the other,” he says, adding that if the money doesn’t come through, the contractor would finish the project without the bridges.

That would involve completing the system that would drain retention pond two near Lorne Street into pond three via pipes already installed under the CN tracks east of Charles Street.

Water from the two ponds would then flow through a series of pipes, culverts and ditches to the newly installed aboiteau for discharge into the river at low tide making flooding in Sackville during severe storms in Eppell’s words, “highly unlikely.”

Walking trails

Pond three in the Sackville industrial park behind the community gardens on Charles St. shown in this photo from last November

Even without the two pedestrian bridges however, hikers can continue to use the service roads that double as walking trails around ponds two and three.

Eppell says he sees lots of people using the trails that extend the ones in the Sackville Waterfowl Park.

“It’s pretty pleasant out there and I see lots of ducks now out in that area where there were no ducks before,” he says.

His words echoed those of Sackville resident Laurel McIntyre who attended the May 30 municipal “roadshow” meeting that Tantramar held at the Civic Centre.

McIntyre, who has lived on St. James Street for 39 years, says it’s great to see so much wildlife in the heart of Sackville.

She predicts that the trails will also attract tourists.

“If you really wanted to, you could park at the Visitor Information Centre, get on your bike, go through the Waterfowl Park, all the way out past the public works building and come back again,” she says.

“It’s a great ride.”

For earlier coverage including an overview of the Lorne Street project, click here.