‘How many days?’; Moncton area residents countdown to causeway completion
The countdown is on to the completion of the bridge connecting Riverview to Moncton.
A sign outside of a Riverview garage reads “70 days till the bridge reopens,” on Wednesday.
Garage owner Fenwick Maybe says when he first put up this sign in front of his Riverview shop, it was meant as a joke.
“I’m known to be a bit of a character, so I just got this whim and talked to a sign guy and said, ‘this is what I want to do’,” recalls Maybe.
For now, the sign has become a staple for commuters, with drivers turning to Maybe for his countdown to the reopening of the Petitcodiac River Causeway.
“Everywhere I go they ask ‘how many days? how many days?’… doesn’t matter where I am,” says Maybe.
Construction first shut down the Causeway on April 5, diverting all traffic travelling between Moncton and Riverview to the Gunningsville Bridge for six months.
“It gets a little congested, sometimes for about five to ten minutes. You know at lunch time, but other than that, it flows pretty well,” says Maybe.
But just past the halfway mark into the $60-million cross-river construction, not everyone feels the same.
“Our business is down quite a bit since the causeway closed,” says Wendy Smith, owner of Walton’s Bakery in Riverview.
Just up the road from the construction, Smith says her bakery saw more customers during the height of the pandemic then they are now, with people from Moncton telling them it’s easier to shop on the other side of the river.
“People would rather come here than go to the big box stores, if they just needed bakery items, so that didn’t hurt us, but the causeway has,” says Smith.
Riverview Mayor Andrew LeBlanc says some businesses on his side of the causeway have reached out to him about the impact of the closure, saying the restaurant industry was seemingly the hardest hit, seeing fewer out of town visitors since construction began.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure says the more than $60-million project is scheduled to open on October 5, a day many are looking forward to.
“I imagine that our regular clientele will just be flocking to us, because they haven’t gotten our product in so long,” says Smith.
Until then, drivers are keeping a close eye on the countdown.
“People are seeing an end to it. When it first went up, it was a ‘Oh my God’ kind of thing, but now it’s down to a reasonable number,” says Maybe.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
First court appearance for boy and girl charged in death of Halifax 16-year-old
A girl and a boy, both 14 years old, made their first appearance today in a Halifax courtroom, where they each face a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old high school student.