Upset in Upham: Road closure stirs anger, election jockeying
Provincial candidates pounce as community complains about culvert project
It's hard to miss the infrastructure project that is causing all the upset in Upham.
Smack in the middle of Route 820 sit large black and orange barriers. A large excavator gnaws at the bed of a brook that flows into the nearby Hammond River.
This scene appeared, as if out of nowhere, on the Tuesday morning after New Brunswick Day, catching residents by surprise.
"They knew it was going to happen, but not when," said Karin Boye, a municipal councillor for the area since it became part of the town of Hampton last year.
"If they had have notified people and said this is going to be done … I don't think the uproar would have been quite as big."
People who normally have a 15 or 20-minute drive into Hampton now face a long detour that doubles the time to about 40 minutes — unless they use Robinson Road, a dirt-road shortcut of dubious drivability, to shave 10 minutes off the longer trip.
Monique Bowes, who lives in nearby Upperton, gave it a go, and suffered a flat tire as a result.
"I don't think it was handled very well at all," she said. "People should have been well aware … before having to scramble."
Child-care arrangements, medical appointments and the local volunteer fire department have all been disrupted by the road closure.
Ticking off New Brunswickers is a bad idea at the best of times, but doing it on the eve of a provincial election – in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins, a constituency that may turn into a close race — is even worse.
"Even though the project is complex and requires time, this does not excuse the poor communication carried out by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure," Minister Richard Ames acknowledged in an Aug. 14 Facebook post.
That was more than a week after three candidates from three political parties jumped on the issue, demanding action in a wave of earnest social media posts.
"I think the candidates are trying to show that they care about the people in the riding, and they want to act," said Laura Myers, the Green candidate.
"I think that's great and we're all on the same page with this. We all want to see improved communication in the future."
No one is disputing the need to replace the culvert on Route 820.
It's degraded, creating erosion. Putting off the replacement would increase the risk of a disastrous washout if there were an extreme rainfall.
And the project is complex.
Federal rules require the new design to include a fish passage to create new fish habitat — which added to the time required for permitting and for construction.
But provincial Liberal candidate John Herron says all of that was foreseeable and could have been taken into consideration with more advance planning and a start earlier in the summer.
Instead, the project began in the first week of August and won't be finished until Sept. 30, meaning schoolchildren taking the bus every morning will be subject to four weeks of longer trips along the detour.
"This project has been on the radar since last November," Herron told CBC News.
"A year is more than ample time to plan, to communicate to the community and to execute the project [in a way] that mitigates the impact and the duration of of the project."
Faytene Grasseschi, the Progressive Conservative candidate in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins, also got involved.
She turned down an interview request from CBC News but posted Aug. 7 that she was making calls "to people who may be able to get some answers" and would "advocate for those impacted."
The province's first response was to quickly order some upgrades to Robinson Road to make it less of a rough drive, though it's still bumpy and uneven.
Herron said that could have been done in advance.
Resident Bill Bowes suffered a chip to his windshield while driving around the crews putting new gravel down.
"All of a sudden, bang, and I said, 'Look at that now,'" he said during a roadside interview at the corner of Route 820 and Robinson Road.
Ames's public Facebook post also included a link to a form that vehicle owners can fill out to apply for compensation for damage.
Herron believes Ames's mea culpa was the result of what he called "old-school" political pressure he applied, including signs he posted with the hashtag "Six weeks is too long for Upham."
But he also credits local residents.
"The community put a little political pressure on it," he said. "This project has captured the attention of the government."
Myers agreed.
"I think if there hadn't been a community outcry, we probably wouldn't have heard from the minister," she says.
Grasseschi also thanked residents for contacting her and in an email to CBC News noted she'd been able to speak "directly" with Ames, a fellow Progressive Conservative.
The next objective, according to Boye, is to persuade the province to lean on the contractors to work longer hours to finish the project before the current Sept. 30 deadline.
In his statement, Ames said the department "will make every effort to complete this project ahead of schedule."
The other looming date is the provincial election, scheduled for Oct. 21.
Boye says she doesn't know whether the upset in Upham will affect how residents vote.
"I hope not," she said. "I hope they still vote with their hearts. You know, it has nothing to do with it. It just seems opportune that everybody sort of followed up on it."
At least the community is now firmly on the radar of all the candidates, she added.
"Everybody knows where Upham is."
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