Long awaited Isthmus study released with 10 year timeline, and $190-300 million price tag
It will cost between $190 and $300 million to protect the Transcanada Highway and CN Rail line between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick from sea level rise, according to a government funded study released today.
New Brunswick’s transportation minister Jill Green and her Nova Scotia counterpart Kim Masland presented three options to protect the Chignecto Isthmus trade corridor in a news conference Friday afternoon.
The two cheapest options (estimated at $190 and $200 million) involve fortifying or rebuilding the current dykes to 10.6 metres elevation, and constructing a water control system across the mouth of the Tantramar River as it enters the Bay of Fundy. The new control structure would stretch from the Westcock marsh across the mouth of the river to the Fort Beausejour side.
A much more expensive third option (estimated at $300 million) would see a longer set of existing dykes topped up and fortified. Those dykes surround the Westcock marsh and continue along Carters Brook up to the intersection of the 106 and 935, and then return back to the Tantramar River.
Other options were considered but scored much lower in the study’s analysis. Those included raising the CN rail line to 10.6 metres and using it to protect the rest of the isthmus, building a bridge to carry the highway and rail line over 10.6 metres, and raising one or both lanes of the highway to 10.6 metres.… Continue