Weakening bridge worries Margaree residents
‘When it’s a matter of life and death for someone, that’s a big concern’
Residents in a small Inverness County community say a deteriorating bridge could cost firefighters precious minutes when responding to an emergency. Megan
Brown of Margaree
Centre says Cranton
Bridge, which connects the community to the Cabot Trail, has been falling apart for years, and is often closed when the land on either side of the northeast Margaree River floods. When it is open, the bridge is permanently reduced to one lane, with traffic lights on either side, because only the centre portion is passable.
While that often tacks an extra few kilometres onto a trip to the grocery store or work, her biggest worry is weight restrictions that mean the local volunteer fire department’s trucks can’t cross the river there.
“Everyone’s got to get across that river — most people every day — but the major, major concern is the fire department is on one side of the river so they’re not allowed to cross the bridge with their vehicles, which means they have to do a detour — we call it around the river — but it probably adds a good 10 minutes to your drive. That’s inconvenient, but it’s not safe either. If they’re trying to get to somebody’s house fire or an accident, when it’s a matter of life and death for someone, that’s a big concern.”
Shawn Burchell, chief of the North East Margaree Volunteer Fire Department, said a five-tonne weight limit has been placed on Cranton Bridge for the past year. The department’s equipment van and a small pumper truck meet the restrictions but their two main pumpers don’t. And when the bridge is closed, many volunteer firefighters who live on the other side have to travel a considerable distance up East Big Intervale Road and cross Crowdis Bridge just to get to the fire department.
“There’s a house right on the other side of Cranton Bridge, so if their house was on fire, they need the fire department, we’re going to have to drive eight extra kilometres to get to that house,” he said.
“That’s our concern, and there’s other houses down there. It’s a big area and we have an aging population too. We also have a big area of seasonal residents who rely in the fire department, too.”
Inverness MLA Allan MacMaster said he’s spoken to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal about the bridge, which he said connects about 100 households and 20 organizations and businesses in the area.
He said the bridge, which is currently closed, will likely reopen once an excavator can remove the debris that the river often sends piling into the structure.
He said the department
plans to replace the old structure in the summer of
2019, and he’s pushing for a new design that won’t be susceptible
to flooding. “This happens all the time — the debris collects and then you have the water pushing on it, and that’s pushing on the supports for the bridge,” he said.
“The answer is a new bridge that doesn’t have supports underneath it —a bridge that would just cross the span without anything underneath — and I think that’s what they’re starting to look at and it is now in the capital plan.”
That’s exactly what Brown and other residents are hoping takes place.
“It doesn’t need to be fixed, it needs to be replaced,” she said. “I think everyone is fed up with the doing little touchups to it to keep it going — the bridge needs to go and a new bridge needs to be put there.”