Fredericton's Regent, Prospect intersection closing for summer

Fredericton's busiest intersection will be closed for three monthsnext summer as the city plans to upgrade itsaging infrastructure and add more lanes.

"The infrastructure is at the end of its life, so this is a chance to get back in there and renew the infrastructure," said citytraffic engineerJon Lewis.

The city is in the planning stages of that work.

The construction will include work on the bridge over Route 8. The city also hopes to put double left turn lanes from Regent Street onto Prospect as well as double left turn lanes from the Vanier Highway on to Regent Street.

The construction is set to take three months, from June 1 to Sept. 1. During that time the intersection will be completely closed.

"We're using all the accelerated construction methods that we can in order to get this done as quickly as possible," said Lewis.

Lewis said heexpects traffic to increase along Knowledge Park Drive, Bishop Drive, Hanwell Roadand the new Smythe Street roundabout.

"With those alternate routes there is stillexpected to be substantial delays," he said.

With traffic going along those different routes, businesses around the intersection could have a tough summer.

Businesses, such asDairy Queen, will see less people driving byand possibly less business.

"It will definitely affect sales, not just at this location but probably everyone on the strip here, so it's definitely concerning," said Rod Ward,manager at the Dairy Queen on Prospect Street.

Ward saidwill be especially difficult, as the construction will take the entire summer.

"When it's sunny that's our peak time of year for ice cream sales obviously," said Ward.

"It's definitely going to affect us, but we'll try to work through it."

The city is making plans to try and help businesses in the area through the summer.

"We're going to ensure that access is still provided," said Lewis.

"There may be opportunity to add special signage that wouldn't necessarily be there to provide direction to some of these businesses."

The city says they will be meeting with businesses early in 2016 to hear their concerns and try to figure things out.