New wharf needed to fight storm surges, rising sea, says Saint Andrews mayor

For Saint Andrews the choice is simple: rebuild the wharf or have it flood.

The town is proposing a rebuilt wharf and waterfront made out of rock and armour stone to replace the largely wooden structure there now.

Doug Naish, the mayor, says the town has LiDAR imaging, a surveying technique that creates a 3-D map of an area, and some predictions are alarming.

"Without intervention, most of our current downtown business section will probably be underwater in 100 years," said Naish.

"So we need to act now. We can't wait much longer."

Combating storm surge

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The new wharf is needed to deal with rising oceans and more dramatic storm surges, he said in an interview with Information Morning Saint John.

"If you've been here any time recently, it seems to those of us as casual observers, that the high tides are higher [and] the low tides are lower," said Naish.

"When we get a combination of the effects of storm surge and weather, you know, we're really up to the top of the wharf some days at high tide."

Saint Andrews residents will get an opportunity to check out the new plans at an open house Tuesday evening.

CBC News contacted Saint Andrews Town Hall to obtain a copy of the proposal, but one was not provided.

This isn't the first time Saint Andrews has had to re-evaluate the future of the waterfront.

In 2017, the town had discussions about how to rejuvenate Market Square, but Naish said that was more about revitalizing the waterfront, not rebuilding it.

"That proposal was more of a cosmetic change and to open up the square to get more utilization out of it in terms of square footage," said Naish.

"That still could go forward, but that's been pretty much put on the shelf in favour of doing this first."

$3 million, give or take

Naish said engineers hired by the town have estimated the project at around $3 million, give or take 10 per cent.

He said these types of projects usually result in the federal, provincial and municipal governments all paying a third of the cost, but he hopes the size of the project and the town will be a mitigating factor. 

"We've seen some signs of other programs coming forward where municipalities, especially small municipalities, are only being required to pay less as their share of these kinds of catastrophic projects that have to be done because they're so important," said Naish.

Naish expects some reaction from residents to the proposal, but said it's not an unusual design and it serves a purpose.

"It's dramatic for us, but not dramatic in the sense that all around the Atlantic Canada wharves and seawalls are being constructed this way," said Naish.

"It's the obvious way to go to contest, or to contend with … sea level rise and storm surge."

The open house will be held Tuesday, Sept. 25, at the W.C. O'Neill Arena from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.  

With files from Information Morning Saint John