Fredericton outlines upgrades to make city flood-resilient

The City of Fredericton says it will go ahead with some infrastructure upgrades to reduce the impact of flooding in parts of the city. 

But major work to make the New Brunswick capital more flood-resilient has yet to be finalized as city staff draft a long-term mitigation strategy.

The strategy — a comprehensive, eight-year plan that will be ironed out during 2020 budget talks — is in part informed by two public engagement sessions held in the summer. 

Sean Lee, assistant director of engineering and operations, said gathering the perspectives of residents was important for city engineers to better understand the issues. 

"We look at maps, at plans, we look at topography, we look at the flood levels," Lee said. "But it was really good to get input from residents to … put some context around what we're seeing, what we're trying to do and help us understand the issues and the situations that residents are dealing with."

Back-to-back spring floods brought historic water levels and caused millions of dollars in damage, prompting the city to take "every reasonable measure we can" to avoid a repeat next year.

Before the end of fall, the city will install valves in its storm-sewer system at certain locations to reduce the chance of floodwater backing up. The duck bill valves are made of flexible material that slows down water from entering the system during floods.

Where the money is coming from

The project will cost $150,000, which will come from the federal gas tax fund, Lee said.

Funds to support the long-term mitigation strategy will come from the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund, a federal program for communities affected by floods, wildland fires and droughts. 

In August, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $11.4 million in funding to help protect Fredericton against flooding, and the city said it will contribute another $17 million over eight years on flood adaptation.

It is still to be determined exactly what infrastructure improvements will come from the strategy.

"As we do our infrastructure improvements and kind of following up from the discussion from these sessions, we may look at where people have mentioned that the road is under water and people are driving on the road," Lee said. 

"If we're in there to replace the infrastructure, we may not be able to stop the floodwaters from coming in, but we may be able to raise the road up so that people aren't impacted."

That could improve access for residents and emergency vehicles. Dozens of streets were closed during the 2018 and 2019 floods.

The eight-year plan will consider a range of issues, such as transportation networks, transit, storm water, drinking water, wastewater systems and emergency response.