Flooding forces widespread road and office closures in Fredericton area

Flooding forces widespread road and office closures in Fredericton area

City encouraging residents to leave cars at home as more than 40 roads and streets remain closed

CBC News · Posted: Apr 30, 2018 12:48 PM AT | Last Updated: an hour ago

Flooding has caused widespread road closures and traffic delays across Fredericton, prompting the city to ask residents to leave their cars at home if they can. (Gary Moore/CBC )

Closures and traffic delays piled up in the Fredericton area Monday morning as the banks of the St. John River continued to spill its banks.

Provincial government offices in downtown Fredericton are closed Monday to help ease constraints on parking and traffic created by the flooding.

The Fredericton courthouse is also closed. All scheduled court matters are being heard at the Burton courthouse.

In addition, the Fredericton Public Library and New Brunswick College of Craft and Design are also closed.

Rain could push St. John River levels near 8.3 metres, Fredericton EMO says

Meanwhile, about 40 roads and streets remain closed throughout Fredericton.

Drivers are asked to avoid Lincoln Road, Waterloo Row, Union Street east of Gibson, Riverside Drive and Lower St. Mary's.

John Lewis, the city's traffic engineer, said the combination of road closures and parking lots being flooded has made commutes very difficult.

Only two city-owned parking lots are ope: Frederick Square and the east end parking garage.

Fredericton is down by more than 800 parking space in total, according to a news release from city hall.

"This is one of the more challenging transportation issues that we've had to deal with for quite some time," Lewis said.

As a result, the city was encouraging people to walk or bike to work or find other alternate ways of getting to the office.

More road closures affected by floodwaters across New Brunswick
City buses are free, and the city has also set up park-and-ride shuttle services on the city's north and south sides.

Shuttles will run continuous service from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m, and again from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., from these locations:

Brookside Mall — pickup, drop-off location at Queen and Westmorland streets.
Willie O'Ree — pickup, drop-off location at Queen and Westmorland streets.
Grant Harvey Centre — pickup, drop-off location York and Brunswick streets (Brunswick Street Baptist Church).
Regent Mall (former Sears location) — pickup, drop-off location York and Brunswick streets (Brunswick Street Baptist Church).
School closures

The flooding led the Anglophone West School District to cancel some schools Monday and to cancel busing in some areas.

George Street Middle School in Fredericton and Barker's Point Elementary School will be closed on Monday.

Bus changes include:

Busing in the Rusagonis area will be cancelled (buses 378, 376, 345, 345, 344, 380, 385).
Busing in the Maugerville area will be cancelled (buses 238 and 253).
Busing for Connaught Street School will be cancelled (bus 201).
Buses 14, 15 and 17 in the Perth-Andover area will be cancelled.
Busing for grades K to 8 students in the Hoyt and Central Blissville areas will be cancelled.
Busing for grades 9 to 12 students in the Fredericton Junction and Tracy areas will be cancelled.
In all other local areas impacted by flooding and road closures, buses will service up to the road closed. signs/barriers. The district says if students can meet their bus at these locations, transportation will be. provided. Where buses are not running, transportation will be the parent's responsibility.