Work on Centennial Bridge upgrade in doubt again after contractor removed

Progress this year on Miramichi's Centennial Bridge overhaul has been thrown into doubt again after the province removed the contractor from the job over alleged breaches of contract.

Miramichi Mayor Adam Lordon says the province notified the city it hopes to proceed with work this summer, which would include full closure of the bridge to do resurfacing work.

But after numerous delays on an upgrade that was announced in 2015 and was supposed to be finished by now, Lordon is looking for certainty.

"I guess we're continuing to get ready in case they are going to move forward, understanding that that will be notified sometime in the, hopefully, not too distant future of what the new plans for this year and the other years will be," he said.

The latest plan for the bridge, which opened in 1967, had been that it be fully shut down from May through the fall for three years in a row, starting in 2025.

CBC News asked the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure about the status of work on the Centennial Bridge, replacement of the Anderson Bridge in Miramichi, and the Mactaquac Dam bridge, all projects that Ontario contractor Julmmac has been removed from.

Department spokesperson Jacob MacDonald said he couldn't answer because the matter is "before the courts."

Lordon said the department will obviously have to take time to find a new contractor, but the city needs to be ready for a full shutdown, which he said would be a major disruption not only for Miramichi but much of northern New Brunswick.

Traffic moving between southern New Brunswick and Bathurst, the Acadian Peninsula and the north shore is routed through the Centennial Bridge.

About 13,700 vehicles used the bridge daily in 2023, according to the province, and closing it to upgrade the driving surface will push all that traffic onto city streets.

The upgrade was first announced by Brian Gallant's Liberal government in 2015, with a nine-year timeline, including a full closure in 2020 to upgrade the surface.

"I think that there's certainly an element of frustration in the community that there's been multiple delays over multiple years with multiple contractors and multiple provincial governments," Lordon said. 

"You know, this entire thing was supposed to be done by now. And we're now in a situation where there's at least several more years."

The original cost was estimated at $83 million but has now more than doubled to $195 million.

The Gallant government cancelled one of the contracts for the work in 2018 without explanation, the first of many setbacks and delays.

The Progressive Conservative government of Blaine Higgs scrapped another of the contracts in 2020 because of spiralling costs.

And now, it's unclear if the work will continue this summer, without a contractor. 

"This is a bit of a dark cloud knowing that this is going to have to happen, but it keeps getting pushed out," Lordon said.

He added that the community is still going to push for building a northern bypass, a controversial request that would have traffic rerouted on a new provincial route north of the city.

Although favoured by local people, the proposal has been shot down by several governments. A recent report showed that it would be impossible to complete in time for the bridge shutdowns over the next three summers. 

But with plans for the shutdown now unclear, Lordon said he hopes the province will review the northern bypass as a possibility. 

"We understand that it will take years, but I think the appetite for saying it won't be done before the bridge closures would be diminished as we continue to have these delays, right?" Lordon said.

"We need the road anyway. And at this rate, it very well could be done before the bridge project is concluded."

Julmac Contracting Ltd., based in Action, Ont., was removed from three major bridge projects earlier this week, according to the company's lawyer, Shalom Cumbo-Steinmetz, who predicted delays in the work as a result.

Julmac says the government wanted the company removed from the projects because it filed a complaint, alleging the province held outside contractors to a stricter standard than it did New Brunswick contractors.