Pieces of the replacement Lower Bridge in St. George. (Photo credit: Crystal Cooke)
The MLA for Fundy-The Isles-Saint John West is coming to the defense of the provincial government on the decision to repair, and not replace, the Lower Bridge in St. George.
Andrea Anderson-Mason, who is also the Justice Minister and Attorney General, says she ran the public meeting about the bridge, and after reading the press release from St. George Mayor Crystal Cook, she thinks politics may be at play.
She says after the meeting, she had many people come to her and express their pleasure with the direction they were going in.
“I have also spoken with the members of Council, and I am concerned that the statements that are being made by the Mayor and CAO don’t necessarily represent the opinion of Council. I am disappointed with the approach the Town has taken.”
She believes politics are starting to wind their way into certain decisions, “The CAO is the former executive assistant to the gentleman I beat out in the election, so one has to wonder if there is some other type of agenda that’s there.”
Anderson-Mason says the costs associated with replacing the bridge could be upwards of $1 million, as opposed to replacing it for around $500,000, though she says they are still looking at the costs of paint.
She says to purchase the bailey bridge itself, it was around $400,000, another $200,000 for the add-on of the walking piece, as well as the installation of the bridge, which she says was expected to be between $2.5 and $3 million.
She also noted the moving of the pipes for services, which would be at the expense of the municipality, “So the municipality would have had to bear that expense, they will tell you otherwise, but I can confirm with the province that there was no formal agreement the province would cover that cost.”
The Justice Minister also says she was at the first meeting about the bridge back in 2016, and the initial plan to replace the bridge included the use of property from adjacent land owners on either side of the bridge, which the Town did not have permission to use.
“They had beautiful pictures, and it showed significant encroachment on adjacent landowners properties, and that was the very first time the adjacent land owners knew that any of their property would be used.”
She says this is a really important component to the situation, “because what the Town has not disclosed is there was not full agreements in place with adjacent landowners for the use of their property.”
She also says the plot thickened when she spoke to Department of Transportation officials.
“They needed use of certain properties for equipment, which was the responsibility of the municipality, and that hadn’t been secured. So the deal wasn’t together, the deal wasn’t ready.”
Anderson-Mason also has an issue with the design of the bailey bridge, saying in most areas a bailey bridge is used as a temporary replacement with the purpose of building a new bridge.
“So in 2016, we were not presented with a bailey bridge option. We were presented with a beautiful bridge, but for some reason that didn’t happen. What many people don’t realize is the bridge that was actually going to be installed as per 2017-2018 agreements was a bailey bridge.”
Restrictions were also a concern for St. George Mayor Crystal Cook, as only repairing the Lower bridge would not change the current maximum weight of 12 ton, or the maximum height allowance of 3.4 metres.
Anderson-Mason says the restrictions are not a concern to her, and says she lives on South Street, only a couple houses away from the Lower Bridge.
“It’s a very narrow road, there are no sidewalks, the vehicles travel way too fast down South Street. It’s a good thing it’s a one-lane bridge because vehicles have to slow down.”
She says it’s untrue that ambulances can not cross the bridge, although firetrucks is a different story.
“It’s fear-mongering, in my opinion. The fire trucks in town, they’re literally just a couple of blocks over. They just have to cross the Upper bridge as opposed to the lower bridge to get to the lower street. But there’s all kinds of people that live many many more kilometres away from a fire department. It’s just not a logical argument.”
Minster Anderson-Mason says she is completely satisfied with repairing the bridge, because when shown other options by DTI, she said this was the only acceptable option.
She says one option from the Department even took out the walking component of the bridge, which is essential for tourism as the bridge overlooks the iconic view of ‘The Gorge’.
The Gorge in St. George, the iconic view taken from the Lower Bridge.
(Photo credit: Angel Berdan)
“I want something, number one, safe. Number two, aesthetic. Number three, I need it to meet the needs of our community, and if we can save money, and I can use that money for something else, then let’s do it.”
When it comes to cancelling a project, Anderson-Mason says we need to really look back in time, and ask ourselves why the bridge didn’t go up years ago.
“If the decision was made in 2016, why didn’t it go up in 2017? Even if they didn’t get it done in 2017, why didn’t they get it done in 2018? I can tell you. I did not get elected until September 24th, 2018. I am not the reason it didn’t happen.”
