According to the province of New Brunswick, there’s one kilometre of road for every 49 people in the province. And as any New Brunswicker knows, some of those kilometres are in better shape than others.
A group of residents from the Murray Corner area are meeting with Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Jeff Carr this week to ask that he consider some much needed repairs on their corner of the New Brunswick road network, route 955, which runs from Cape Tormentine to Mates Corner.
Stephen Robb is a resident of Little Shemogue in the municipality of Strait Shores. He operates Loella’s Country Market, right on route 955, and that’s put him at the centre of a community push to draw attention to the state of roadway.
During the high tourist season, Robb says he and his staff heard repeatedly from customers saying, “how awful the road is, and why aren’t residents up in arms about how bad this road is, and how unsafe it is?” The feedback prompted Robb to set up a petition in Loella’s, which collected hundreds of signatures over the past summer. Now Robb is helping organize the next step, a meeting in Fredericton with Minister Carr on Tuesday, February 27.
To prepare, Robb has been documenting the road’s condition with photos and measurements. He says in many places the shoulder is eroded and lane widths can be as little as 7 feet.
“It’s well beyond the point of no return with his highway,” says Robb. “It really needs to be rebuilt.”
The deteriorating shoulders make passing unsafe, and also present issues for people walking or riding in the area. “You can’t walk on that road,” says Robb. “It’s not safe. You can’t drive a bike. You can’t jog. People do, but it’s dangerous,.”
“We want it rebuilt. We want proper shoulders, so people can walk and enjoy the area, rather than get around everywhere by car,” says Robb.
According to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI), the road last saw some resurfacing work in 2018, and there are two repair projects that are slated for this summer to fix damage caused by hurricanes in 2019 and 2022. But Route 955 doesn’t appear on the province’s online map showing which stretches of provincial road will see new asphalt or chip seal this year.
Robb says the route 955 is the poorest kept part of the Acadian Coastal Route, with roads in the Cap Pelé area in much better condition. Despite the geography, Robb says he doesn’t think that language or party politics are to blame. Rather he thinks the voice of local citizens could be making the difference.
“I think that Cap Pelé and Shediac, for example, are just much more vocal and demanding of the provincial government,” says Robb.
“If you ask a resident,” says Robb, “they’ll just say the government hates us. I don’t know if that’s really the case, but certainly the area has been ignored by the provincial government,” he says, something that might be due to low or aging population.
Robb says the area has been in slow recovery from the economic blows of losing the Marine Atlantic ferry that ran out of Cape Tormentine until 1997 when the Confederation Bridge took over as transportation link to PEI..
“The area was devastated by that, and it’s slowly making its way back.” He says an influx of people moving from outside of province and within province from the Moncton area means that “we’re starting to get noticed a little bit more.”
Robb says he has support for his Route 955 reconstruction plea from the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick, as well Strait Shores’ Mayor, Jason Stokes. He’s also spoken with Minister of Tourism, Heritage & Culture, Tammy Scott-Wallace, who he says is concerned about access to Murray Beach Provincial Park. Robb says Scott-Wallace has agreed to join the meeting with Carr on Tuesday.
At a recent legislative committee meeting with DTI’s deputy minister Rob Taylor told MLA Megan Mitton that the department has low traffic counts from the area, and also that it has not been flagged as a priority from the department of tourism.
Stephen Robb is optimistic that the community can get some attention for Route 955. “It’s way past due,” says Robb. “The province has ignored the problem forever… They’ve received lots of concerned calls from residents. And it’s time.”