THURSDAY CEREMONY
St. Peters Canal bridge officially opens.
Residents of St. Peters and neighboring communities gathered at the new two-lane swing bridge at St. Peters Canal on Thursday to celebrate its official opening.
This ceremony marked the completion of $16M federal infrastructure investment project to replace the swing bridge at St. Peters Canal National Historic Site.
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) managed the project on behalf of Parks Canada.
Clair Rankin, 63, a lifelong resident of St. Peters, said although the old bridge was a historical part of St. Peters, he thought the new construction went very well since it began in March of 2016.
“The construction went very well, I have to say,” said Rankin. “We were all here when they tore down the old one — a piece of history left St. Peters, but it went well.
“Kudos to Parks Canada and the other contractors.”
The ceremony included a number guest speakers and drew in a crowd of dozens who came to witness the official opening, many of whom had a connection to the old bridge.
Frances O’Hearn, from Isle Madame, has had a connection with St. Peters and the old bridge for many years.
“I’ve been crossing the bridge most of my life when I would go to Sydney, I also lived at the Canal House when I was in Grade 11 in St. Peters,” said O’Hearn who said the ceremony was great to experience.
“It’s lovely, it was a beautiful day for it and there was a nice crowd — it’s nice to see people happy about it, too.”
Potlotek First Nation also had a stake in the project and was involved in the construction process. During the ceremony, Chief Wilbert Marshal of Potlotek spoke and Mi’kmaq elder, Robert Pictou, also from Potlotek, conducted a traditional smudging ceremony to give good luck to the structure.
As part of the project, new Mi’kmaw interpretation panels are currently in production. These new panels are a way to discover Indigenous traditions and customs and, in doing so, better understand the cultures and histories of Canada’s Indigenous people.
Work on the bridge began in 2016 and included road realignment, widening from a one-lane to a two-lane bridge, an updated pedestrian walkway and new signage.
The bridge was opened to traffic on June 15, ahead of the official opening ceremony on Thursday.
Terry Walsh of PSPC was the project manager of the canal bridge project, and said the work first began with planning in the fall 2014 and, although it was a complicated project, now that its over he felt everyone involved did a great job on the state-of-the-art structure.
“It’s great to get to the finish. It was definitely challenging, but it was a really good team. I’m very pleased with the design group we had and the contractors had a really good support group in terms of their sub-contractors,” said Walsh.
“It was a really good team on both sides, from the design to the management side and the community was very patient and co-operative throughout the project.”
David Ebert, an adviser for the Cape Breton field unit for Parks Canada, said having a large crowd at the ceremony on a sunny Thursday morning showed how important the new structure is to the people in surrounding communities.
“I think it was great, obviously having that many people show up from the community is a symbol of how important this is to the community of St. Peters,” said Ebert.
“Also, for the Parks Canada team who has been working on this for several years, it’s a nice exclamation point to the project — it reminds us all that it’s been a long route and a lot of work, but it was worth it.”