 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2023) |
The Westmorland Street Bridge is a bridge crossing the Saint John River in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Opened on 19 September 1981, the Westmorland Street Bridge is an extension of Westmorland Street in Fredericton's central business district and connects with Route 105 (or the Ring Road) in Nashwaaksis, a neighbourhood of Fredericton since municipal amalgamation in the 1970s.
The bridge is a continuous steel girder structure with concrete sidewalls measuring 750 metres (2,460 ft) long and carrying four traffic lanes with a posted speed limit of 70 km/h (43.5 mph). There is a pedestrian/bicycle pathway on the north side of the vehicle lanes.
Due to the propensity of spring freshets on the Saint John River, a large part of the floodplain is preserved as open space free from development on both sides of the bridge; part of this open space is taken up by the bridge approach roads - the south side of the easterly-flowing river hosts Pointe-Sainte-Anne Boulevard (occasionally called Riverfront Drive), whereas the north side hosts Devonshire Drive. Pointe-Sainte-Anne was the historic Acadian name for Fredericton as this "point" in the river was the location of a former village opposite Fort Nashwaak, hence the French name for the street passing over this territory.
These roads were constructed at the same time as the Westmorland Street Bridge and are accessed via modified cloverleaf interchanges. The final element of the Westmorland Street Bridge was completed on 5 September 2008 when the northeast exit ramp from the bridge for eastbound traffic on Devonshire Drive was opened. This ramp was part of the original design for the bridge but was not built in the 1970s as a result of budget cuts. The idea of completing the missing ramp was periodically resurrected by municipal politicians over a period of 25 years until construction finally began in 2007. Until that time, a temporary connection was used to connect the eastbound lanes of Union Street (which parallels Devonshire Drive).
Considerable public debate preceded construction of the Westmorland Street Bridge in both municipal and provincial politics. Prior to late 1950s, Fredericton had a single bridge crossing the Saint John River. The Carleton Street Bridge was constructed in 1905 as an extension of Carleton Street on the south side to Bridge Street (now Cliffe Street) on the east bank (or north side). Later, in 1959, the Princess Margaret Bridge was opened as part of the construction of the Route 2 (the Trans-Canada Highway) bypass project around the city.
In 1968, construction of the Mactaquac Dam 15 kilometres upriver from Fredericton closed the river to navigable traffic above the city. That same year saw residents and government officials begin to discuss a replacement for the Carleton Street Bridge, now that the costly navigation requirement was eliminated. By the early 1970s, the provincial government (the project's primary proponent) settled on an ambitious traffic planning scheme which would see a single new low profile bridge constructed from the foot of Westmorland Street with appropriate collector roads along the waterfront floodplain.
This plan elicited various protests by residents and the so-called Citizens' Bridge Committee was founded in May 1974 to urge the provincial government to find an alternative location for the proposed bridge. Issues cited included the location, size and cost of the crossing. The Westmorland Street location was controversial as it and the collector roads would have a major impact on the city's historic riverfront. The Fredericton chapter of the New Brunswick Conservation Council and the Fredericton Heritage Trust were among several organizations which also sought changes to the proposed bridge location and design.
The specific objectives of the Citizens' Bridge Committee included: citizen participation in the decisions relating to bridge and highway construction, to develop public awareness of the problem, to coordinate public input, and to articulate community concerns. The committee sought expert opinions on bridge and highway matters, made news releases, provided speakers to groups and information to the general public, and represented public concerns before governments and government agencies. [1]
The committee dissolved in September 1975, having decided its members had presented their views to the public and the project had been given a lower priority by the government of Premier Richard Hatfield. In January 1977 a new committee was formed, called Save Our City, in response to renewed efforts by the provincial government to proceed with a replacement for the Carleton Bridge. This committee included representatives from the York-Sunbury Historical Society, the New Brunswick Conservation Council, the University Women's Club, Fredericton Heritage Trust, the Community Planning Association of Canada, various neighbourhood associations, and some members from the Citizen's Bridge Committee. The aim of this new committee was to "open the eyes and ears of civil servants and politicians who have persisted in ignoring the substantial opposition to the Westmorland Street bridge proposal." [1]
Construction of the Westmorland Street Bridge began in the late 1970s and required both swing spans on the Fredericton Railway Bridge and the Carleton Street Bridge be opened for tugboats and barges needed during the project. This would be the last time the railway bridge swing span was ever opened.[ where? ]
Following the completion of the Westmorland Street Bridge in 1981, the steel truss spans of the Carleton Bridge were dismantled; the bridge's piers remain in place across the river with 2 shore-bound piers on the south side being used to carry a short pedestrian bridge across Pointe-Sainte-Anne Boulevard. Another pier (second from the south side shore) became the location of a fountain, called the "Silver Spire of Inspiration", constructed in 2001 to honour New Brunswick athletes who participated in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, including Fredericton swimmer Marianne Limpert. Other than the summer of 2003, the fountain has only worked sporadically, but elements of it may have found a new home at the Grant-Harvey Arena complex, opened in 2012.[ citation needed ]
Fredericton is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, also known by its Indigenous name of Wolastoq, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the dominant natural feature of the area. One of the main urban centres in New Brunswick, the city had a population of 63,116 and a metropolitan population of 108,610 in the 2021 Canadian Census. It is the third-largest city in the province after Moncton and Saint John.
The William Jolly Bridge is a heritage-listed road bridge over the Brisbane River between North Quay in the Brisbane central business district and Grey Street in South Brisbane, within City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Harding Frew and built from 1928 to 1932 by MR Hornibrook.
Route 1 is a highway in the southern part of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It begins in the west from the Canada–United States border at St. Stephen, and runs east for 239.11 kilometres (148.58 mi) to Route 2 at River Glade.
Route 2 is a major provincial highway in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, carrying the main route of the Trans-Canada Highway in the province. The highway connects with Autoroute 85 at the border with Quebec and Highway 104 at the border with Nova Scotia, as well as with traffic from Interstate 95 in the U.S. state of Maine via the short Route 95 connector. A core route in the National Highway System, Route 2 is a four-lane freeway in its entirety, and directly serves the cities of Edmundston, Fredericton, and Moncton.
King's Highway 417, commonly referred to as Highway 417 and as the Queensway through Ottawa, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It connects Ottawa with Montreal via A-40, and is the backbone of the highway system in the National Capital Region. Within Ottawa, it forms part of the Queensway west from Highway 7 to Ottawa Road 174. Highway 417 extends from the Quebec border, near Hawkesbury, to Arnprior, where it continues westward as Highway 17. Aside from the urban section through Ottawa, Highway 417 passes through farmland that dominates much of the fertile Ottawa Valley.
Kelly Lamrock is a lawyer and political consultant in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. He was previously a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick for Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak, and Minister of Social Development in the New Brunswick cabinet before opening Lamrock's Law in Fredericton.
The Riverside Expressway is part of the Pacific Motorway that runs through Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is located on the western side of the Brisbane CBD and is made up of various bridges and overpasses. The North Bank development is proposed to alleviate the visual disruption of the expressway and recapture Brisbane for pedestrians.
The Princess Margaret Bridge, sometimes called the Princess Margaret Rose Bridge or shortened to just PMB, is a two-lane highway bridge crossing the Saint John River at Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. It is named after Queen Elizabeth II's sister Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon.
The Saint John Harbour Bridge is three-span crossing of Saint John Harbour at the mouth of the Saint John River in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. It opened in 1968.
The history of Fredericton stretches from prehistory to the modern day. Fredericton, New Brunswick was first inhabited by the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet peoples. European settlement of the area began with the construction of Fort Nashwaak by the French in 1692. In 1783, the United Empire Loyalists settled Ste. Anne's Point, and in the next year, renamed the settlement Frederick's Town. The name was later shorted to Fredericton in April 1785.
Anthony Henday Drive (Highway 216) is a 78-kilometre (48 mi) freeway that encircles Edmonton, Alberta. It is a heavily travelled commuter and truck bypass route with the southwest quadrant serving as a portion of the CANAMEX Corridor that links Canada to the United States and Mexico. Henday is one of the busiest highways in Western Canada, carrying over 108,000 vehicles per day in 2019 at its busiest point near West Edmonton Mall. Rush hour congestion is common on the four-lane section in southwest Edmonton, where traffic levels have risen due to rapid suburban development. Work began in fall 2019 to widen this section to six lanes by the end of 2022.
Grand Bay-Westfield is a town in New Brunswick on the west bank of the Saint John River immediately north of the boundary between Kings County and Saint John County.
Route 105 is a collector highway in New Brunswick running from Route 10 in Youngs Cove to Route 108 in Grand Falls, mostly along the east and north banks of the Saint John River, over a distance of 307.0 kilometres (190.8 mi). Route 105 consists largely of former alignments of Route 2 and runs parallel to Route 2 over its entire length.
The Hartland Covered Bridge in Hartland, New Brunswick, is the world's longest covered bridge, at 1,282 feet (391 m) long. It crosses the Saint John River from Hartland to Somerville, New Brunswick, Canada. The framework consists of seven small Howe Truss bridges joined on six piers.
The Hillsborough River Bridge is a bridge crossing the Hillsborough River estuary between Charlottetown and Stratford in Queens County, Prince Edward Island. The current road bridge, built in 1962, replaced a 1905 rail bridge crossing the same span which was known by the same name.
The Fredericton Railway Bridge is a former railway bridge in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada now used to carry pedestrians and cyclists.
Shippegan is a civil parish in Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada. Located in the northeastern corner of the province at the end of the Acadian Peninsula, the parish consists of the three main islands of Taylor, Lamèque, and Miscou, along with several smaller islands and tidal wetlands; Taylor Island is now joined to the mainland by an isthmus, which is crossed by a causeway.
The East River Greenway is an approximately 9.44-mile-long (15.19 km) foreshoreway for walking or cycling on the east side of the island of Manhattan on the East River. It is part of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. The largest portions are operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It is separated from motor traffic, and many sections also separate pedestrians from cyclists. The greenway is parallel to the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive for a majority of its length.
Shediac is a civil parish in Westmorland County, New Brunswick, Canada.