MLA Megan Mitton says she’s hoping to have more information by the end of the week on the indefinite closure of the Wheaton Covered Bridge on Sackville’s High Marsh Road.
In an e-mail to Mitton, an official with the provincial department of transportation and infrastructure (DTI) said the bridge was closed last Thursday after a recent investigation raised concerns about its structural condition.
“This measure is necessary in order to ensure the safety of the motoring public. DTI is aware of the importance of that structure, and all the options are currently being evaluated,” the e-mail added.
A further e-mail to Warktimes today from DTI says “there is currently no timeline” for reopening the bridge.
Tantramar Town Engineer Jon Eppell says he has been told that the province will be undertaking a detailed evaluation of the structure.
During a tour of the bridge today, Sackville resident Percy Best pointed to the many holes in its roof because of missing wooden shingles as well as rotting interior boards.
“The whole bridge is in rough shape,” he told Warktimes. “It needs a major upgrade and a new roof would be number one,” he added.
Photo shows detached angle brace (top right) one of many that maintain the bridge’s structural rigidity
Best says a thorough engineering study would be needed if the province decides to repair the historic bridge that was built in 1916.
An online article by the Tantramar Heritage Trust says that around 1990 two additional steel supports were installed underneath the bridge.
Best points to a sign on the east side of the bridge that prohibits large trucks. Another sign limits the weight of vehicles to only five tonnes probably insufficient for farm wagons hauling heavy loads of manure.
Last week, Best crawled under the bridge where he photographed a sagging diagonal brace with pieces added over the years to maintain strength.
Photo showing sagging brace and the two steel supports added around 1990. Photo: Percy Best
“Who knows how long the bridge will be closed,” Best says, adding that he worries the province may replace it with something more modern.
He laments the disappearance of covered bridges in New Brunswick.
The National Trust for Canada says at their peak in the 1940s, there were 340 in the province, but only 58 of them are still standing.
According to Tantramar Heritage Trust, there were once seven covered bridges in Sackville Parish, five of which crossed the Tantramar River.
Only the Wheaton Bridge remains.
To read more, click here.
Percy Best, Wheaton Covered Bridge
I was just out at the bridge this afternoon and wondering why it had been closed. Here’s hoping that the province and township are able to repair (and not replace) this wonderful old bridge.
Thanks for reporting this, Bruce.
I blame Percy Best.
Sure Bill, why not shoot the messenger instead of DTI, the provincial government department that allowed the bridge to get to the state in which it needed to have an emergency closure to ensure public safety? Within the space of one year, we have had two emergency closures (this one and the culvert on Hwy 106) in our small community. How many structures in other parts of the province have been allowed to deteriorate to this point as well?
Agree. And that’s not counting the Main Street overpass at the TCH. While its situation is not because of neglect of aging infrastructure, it certainly has not appeared to be at the top of the province’s to-do list. How many months has it been now? [sigh]
Well Marc, the oversized load collision at Exit 504 occurred on Feb 3rd last year. So It has been 17 and a half months and nothing but barricade installation has been done so far.
Higgs takes the money from the NB taxpayers and manages to hoard a huge portion of it away. Normally, if you hire someone to do a job and prepay them for that job, then you expect the job to be be done in a reasonable amount of time.
Indeed, Percy. I thought it had been early last year, but frankly, it’s been so long I couldn’t place exactly when it happened.
My wife is a bicyclist and fears that sooner or later a cyclist will be hit because s/he couldn’t get far enough to the right because of the lane closure. And she’s right… it really is dangerous…
It’s a metaphor for the entire province. What a shit hole.
Well Harold Geddes certainly didn’t think that. He spent most of his life making Sackville better.