People who live in the tiny community of Plumweseep, N.B., say their covered bridge was pretty banged-up.
“It was a mess,” said John Clarke, who lives right next door. “The bottom of it was very bad and the sides were in desperate shape. They’ve done a real good job refurbishing it.”
Built in 1911, repair work on the 22.5-metre-long structure near Sussex is almost complete.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure [DTI] was not unable to provide CTV News with an update on Tuesday, but Sussex-Three Rivers MLA Tammy Scott-Wallace said on her Facebook page the repair work was almost done.
“Great news. The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure say the Plumweseep covered bridge will be open by the end of this week after its major overhaul,” said Scott-Wallace on Facebook. “I love to see our covered bridges maintained.”
On Feb. 26, The William Mitton covered bridge in Riverview was torn down because it couldn’t be saved.
The bridge had been out of service since the 1980s, was in disrepair and was no longer needed to service traffic.
As far as the Plumweseep bridge is concerned, Clarke is glad to see it fixed up.
“Oh absolutely. Yeah, it’s a nice feature. It’s a tourist attraction,” said Clarke.
Denis Poirier is happy too, but said the closure over the winter months was hard on him financially.
Poirier is the owner of Penobsquis Corner Gas Kwik-Way and said many of his customers couldn’t cross the bridge to get to him.
“They’re saying that it will be open by the end of this month. They did a complete overhaul, and I hope they do because it sure hurt my business,” said Poirier.
Poirier thinks the province could have just left the bridge the way it was.
“Put a bridge beside it so the plow could go through and just refurbish it for a walking bridge. But, they obviously felt it should be a vehicle bridge,” said Poirier. “It is what it is.”
Two other bridges in southeast New Brunswick remain out of service.
The Wheaton Covered Bridge in Sackville was closed in July for safety reasons, while the Midway-Germantown bridge near Riverside-Albert has been closed since June after a regular inspection.
CTV News has requested an update from DTI on both bridges.
For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
