Department of Transportation and Infrastructure bridges still need maintenance

Only half of New Brunswick's bridges requiring significant maintenance have received attention from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

A 2013 report from Auditor General Kim MacPherson looked at the province's more than 2,600 bridges and culverts.

The report graded each structure on a Bridge Condition Index (BCI) up to 100. Any bridge that received 60 BCI or less, was deemed in "poor" condition requiring significant maintenance to keep them in service.

MacPherson's report identified 293 New Brunswick bridges fell into that category.

As of this date, only145 bridges identified in poor condition have received any attention from DTI. Only 11 of the remaining 148 bridges are scheduled to receive anyduring this fiscal year.

The five worst bridges in the Auditor General's report, appear to have received no maintenance at all. A department spokesperson says staff continue to monitor them, but wasn't able to clarify if any work to improve them had been done.

Four of those bridges, two in the Moncton region, two in the Saint John area, had a BCI rating of 1.

Only one of those, a culvert under a causeway in Lorneville has been replaced. A temporary bailey bridge was erected in response to a partial collapse of the road in December of 2013.

At the time of the Lorneville causeway collapse, former transportation minister Claude Williams said it caught his department by surprise. In fact, the bridge had been flagged for immediate attention for seven years, but no action was taken.

This week in Saint John, locals spurred DTI to action regarding a bridge over Hazen Creek. Two-out-of-three of the bridges steel supports are severely corroded.

Dennis Griffin lives in the area and expressed disbelief the bridge was allowed to deteriorate to its current state. Griffin says he first warned DTI about the bridge in 2007.

"Until today, when they actually stuck up the sign that says the weight limit is thirteen tonnes...that's telling people, you know, it's dangerous" Griffin said on Wednesday. "Well they knew about this for years. And I've known about it for years, because I reported it since '07."

Despite the alarming appearance of the supports, DTI says the Hazen Creek has a BCI of 77.

It's now scheduled to receive repairs in June, but in the meantime a weight restriction of 13 tonnes has been imposed on the bridge. The practice of imposing weight restrictions to put-off repairs, was something Auditor General Kim MacPherson warned against.

MacPherson also chided the government for not posting bridge conditions online for the public, a practice adopted by many other provinces.

"There's an accountability and transparency obligation on the part of the government that the public knows the state of our bridges and that those bridges be made public" MacPherson said at the time.

To this date, no changes to that practice have been implemented.