Tantramar mayor, business owners fear summer highway closure

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The mayor of Tantramar and business owners are asking for the province to speed up repairs on the highway between Sackville and Dorchester in fears the closure will impact commuting and tourism in the area.

Highway 106 has been closed between the two communities since April 1 after a culvert was damaged in a storm.

According to NB 511 from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, Highway 106 is expected to be closed until Sept. 3, and there is a detour in place.

In a letter dated May 8 to Transportation Minister Richard Ames, Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black said the section of closed road initially had a completion date of May 31, but this week it had gotten extended to the first week of September.

“This closure has significant impact to not only residents of Tantramar, but has also impacted protective services, student transportation, safety, tourism, businesses, a federal institution, as well as Fort Folly First Nations,” he wrote in the letter.

“The increase of traffic flow along the detour route has and will continue to deteriorate our infrastructure.”

Kara Becker, co-owner of Peep & Keep Ecotique, said since the closure her store has been quiet. The boutique, which sells locally made products from artisans and small businesses, opened last year, and Becker had been hoping for another strong year.

She fears the detour will deter people from visiting Dorchester during the summer tourism season, including the shop she runs with business partner Debbie Wiggins-Colwell.

“We could not believe how well we did our first summer and now it’s crickets,” she said. “We’re really concerned the road closure will impact our ability to continue in business.”

We're going to become a little ghost town

Kara Becker

After talking with other small businesses in the community, she said they are also seeing less traffic. Weeks away from the beginning of tourism season normally they begin to see motorcyclists and people out for a weekend drive.

“It’s a tragic time to have this happening,” she said. “It was this blossoming in Dorchester with all these entrepreneurs starting up these cool businesses. People were excited about it.”

In the summer people often stop in Dorchester on their way to watch the migration of sandpipers and other shorebirds at the Johnson’s Mills Shorebird Reserve and Interpretive Centre.

Becker also worries about motorists and cyclists traveling on the detour route, which uses Woodlawn Road and King Street, because the roads are filled with pot holes.

“It really is an old country road,” she said. “There’s no shoulders. There will be an accident there.”

So far, business owners and residents have not gotten any information from the province on the reason for the delay in repairing the road.

“I feel like we’re going to become a little ghost town. It just feels like we’ve been totally forgotten by the province,” Becker said.

In his letter, Black asked Ames for his department to “expedite the crucial measures” needed to re-open that section of Highway 106. The municipality is also asking for transparent communication from the department regarding the aspects of restoring the highway.