Residents and businesses around Hillsborough, N.B. are complaining, after a large section of the main road into Fundy National Park washedout for the second time in three years.
The washout on Route 114 hasn't cut off major attractions like Hopewell Rocks or Fundy National Park, but the bumpy, 20 minute detour, has made it an unpleasant trip for motorists taking the long way around.
Crews were digging out the site on Monday, but a bridge might not be in place until sometime in May.
A local contractor offered to build a temporary bridge free of charge, but the government declined.
Parts of the 22-kilometer detour have been reduced to mound of rubble, due to an increase in traffic that includes large trucks carrying dirt from the washout.
“It's hardly passable, normally I drive a car,” says Jason Horsman. “I've been forced for the last month, and for the next two months, to drive my one-ton truck that does snow removal, just so I can get to work and back safely.”
One local garage saw a month’s worth of broken springs in one week.
“We had a customer in just today actually, their tire was blown,” says auto repair shop manager Tim Rose. “It just popped, so we replaced the tire, and also you see some rim damage.”
Jay Lee owns a gas bar and convenient store cut off by the detour and has seen a steady decline in business.
“The first week, the sales numbers were 50per cent down, the second week 60per cent, third 70per cent,” says Lee. “Now it’s almost 80per cent down.”
A public meeting will be held in Hillsborough Kiwanis Community Centre Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Bill Fraser is expected to attend the meeting, to update residents on the progress of the construction.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis
