The Town of Saint Andrews will move forward with consultation on Market Wharf and Market Square following a presentation by Fundy Engineering.
The engineering firm presented a new plan to the town council before the election, which revealed more structural issues at the head of the wharf.
“Near the mud line, the piles are in very poor condition,” Gordon Mouland, with Fundy Engineering, said in March. “I didn’t expect it, and these need immediate structural repairs.”
He said this is work the council would need to undertake this year. Council agreed that work should move forward this fall — using some of the federal money already allocated to the town.
The work could begin in August, according to the town.
A previous consultation meeting was cancelled due to the death of acting mayor Kate Akagi in late April.
Chief Administrative Officer Chris Spear said the reconstruction and repairs to the approach of the wharf and Market Square would be in the second phase — or next year — noting that design takes time.
“So, in staff’s thinking it might be nice to have at least the initial public consultation … the public should have already had a taste because we made the Fundy Engineering report public — both on paper and online,” he said.
Spear said the most critical aspect of the consultation will be whether and how much infill is used — a point of serious contention with the previous design that would have stretched the infill one-third up the wharf.
Fundy Engineering, according to Acting Mayor Steve Neil, took the opposite approach to the previous design, where reducing the infill reduces the cost.
“At the same time, we’re talking about how much, if any, we’re going to infill Market Square to match,” Spear said. “The other component that’s changed since design drawings changed a year ago is we’re using redi-rock.
“Certainly the infill is not going out anywhere near as far … now it is well before that,” he said. “The most extreme version is about 40 metres.”
He said the way for people to picture it would be to bring Market Square as far as the Day Adventure Centre side of the approach.
Council discussed the options, with most saying they wanted to move ahead with consulting the public.
The mid-summer consultation would also allow summer-only residents to participate, Spear told the council.
Both Spear and Neil said there was more openness on the part of the federal government to change the scope — including not lifting the wharf or the square.
Coun. Lee Heenan said he was in favour of moving forward with consultation as soon as possible — to best prepare the incoming council who likely won’t sit until the end of July.
“I mean this is important, this is a public safety issue, I’d be in favour of getting it set up,” Heenan said.
Bayside Coun. Darrell Weare said he was also in favour of consultation, but said it would be best to include all options for the public’s perspective.
“I want to make sure we do at least have a preliminary decision as to whether the wharf is going to have a decline to it as it goes out,” he said. “My recollection is that received some negative feedback the last time.”
Coun. Marc Blanchard also said he wanted to make sure all options were available to the public.
“If we’re going to public consultation, I feel like we should be going with a clear idea of what the designs would actually look like,” he said.
Blanchard said the key element is whether the wharf and square will be lifted or not — and all options should be available. He said he would rather have full confirmation from the federal government that lifting the wharf is not needed.
“It confuses things,” he said. “I would rather know whether [the lifting] falls within the scope and then present designs based on that.”
Fundy Engineering, in partnership with the Town of Saint Andrews, is expected to bring forth some renderings and information to the public in the coming weeks.
