Municipal council in Saint Andrews has sent out a request for proposals for the management of the Market Wharf and Market Square development project.
It comes just three weeks after the council voted six-to-one in favour of sending the project to tender, despite some pushback from the community and within the council.
The project design was originally voted on by residents who attended public consultations in October 2023, it was later revealed that 191 people voted, with 71 in favour of the current design.
It involves a hybrid-infill with the expansion of Market Square. The infill will consist of armour stone along the first 50 metres of the wharf – the area under a weight restriction.
The expansion of Market Square, for which the plans remain unclear, would make the area four-times its current size.
Seven years of work
The refurbishment of this area has existed over multiple compositions of the council, dating back to 2017.
During the July special meeting, local business owner Kevin Simmonds told the council there was a visioning exercise done about the future of market square in 2017. He said all the businesses around the square were consulted.
However, some of the council were adamant during the July meeting it had not been done.
“There has been no visioning exercise. We have to do that,” Coun Annette Harland said during the July meeting.
It remains unclear whether current councillors were aware of the visioning exercise given the time between when it was done and the tender vote.
In 2018, the town proposed a rebuilt wharf and waterfront made out of rock and armour stone, according to an article published by CBC New Brunswick.
“Without intervention, most of our current downtown business section will probably be underwater in 100 years,” said former Mayor Doug Naish to CBC-N.B. back in 2018.
“So we need to act now. We can’t wait much longer.”
Read more: Saint Andrews council votes to send market wharf to tender
Naish said at the time it wasn’t the first time the town had discussed the idea, which first began in 2017 – except it wasn’t about rebuilding the wharf, it was about rejuvenating it and the square.
“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 to CBC-N.B. at the time. “That still could go forward, but that’s been pretty much put on the shelf in favour of doing this first.”
At the time, according to reports, the project was estimated to be around $3-million. In 2019, the town received funding from the federal government to the tune of about $6 million. The total project now is estimated to cost about $8.2 million. It came with the requirement that the project help mitigate climate change.
The clock is ticking down on that funding, which will expire in March 2026.
Common design, engineer says
Salman Soleimani-Dashtaki, an adjunct professor of engineering at the University of British Columbia, said this design is quite common when it comes to repairing decades-old wharves.
He said if it is left too long, it could mean losing the structure entirely, as the foundation will continue to erode.
“It’s pretty common, it’s a good way of protecting further erosion of the foundation and the substructure there,” Soleimani-Dashtaki said.
He said some of the concerns he’s heard about this particular project could be valid.
Read more: Saint Andrews wharf study released, faces public pushback
“If you introduce break water infrastructure, you start to change the shape of the coastline over time, because you’re breaking the fluid mechanics of the water, the shore changes,” he said in an interview with The Courier.
“You cannot say there is no impact, there will always be an impact. Engineering is all about trades.”
He said the question is whether the wharf is important enough to save. From a sheer engineering perspective, Soleimani-Dashtaki said a reinforced concrete wall could have been a good option for that area, but uglier.
Any protrusion out of the shoreline, he explained, will have an impact on neighbouring properties.
“To what extent, engineering studies have to show that,” he said. “It is possible to predict that.”
However, he said doing nothing means increasing the loss of the wharf in the next severe storm.
“We always have to look at the cost-benefit analysis,” he said.
In the end, Soleimani-Dashtaki said there is no solution that is going to please everyone and it will always be a challenge.
“There is a very wide battle here, and finding a middle ground could be challenging,” he said.
What’s next
The town said the tender has been issued, but it remains unclear when it could come back for approval and whether it remains with the budget set for the project.
Acting Mayor Kate Akagi said if the project does come in over tender, it won’t move forward.
