N.S. spending $2M to build berm near N.B. border

People coming into or leaving Nova Scotia may soon see heavy equipment piling up soil on a section of land near the border with New Brunswick.

Although the $2-million berm project is meant to better protect the area from flooding, it is not part of the work needed to protect the Chignecto Isthmus.

"This is a mitigation measure so that we don't lose the existing dike," Kevin Bekkers of Nova Scotia's Department of Public Works told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon on Wednesday.

The mitigation work, which will involve trucking in material to the site and compacting it, will be handled by Amherst-based Durum Services. The dike in the area is 60 to 70 years old.

Bekkers, who is project lead for both the berm and the isthmus work, described the job to shore up the existing dike as "a large earthen berm that's four metres in height."

The $650-million isthmus project, meanwhile, remains at the centre of a federal-provincial dispute over who should pay the bills.

Ottawa has said it's willing to foot half of the bill. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have argued the federal government should cover the entire project.

Bekkers said that work, which is expected to take a decade to complete, is still very much on the drawing board. 

The governments of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick recently signed a contract with Colliers Canada to oversee the strengthening of the isthmus.