YARMOUTH BAR - A $1-million dollar roadwork project underway at Yarmouth Bar will address some much needed repairs, but there are still areas there that need attention, says the councillor for the district.
“There’s a lot of work that has to be done here,” says Yarmouth municipal councillor Loren Cushing.
“This could be just Phase 1. The armour stone has sunk a lot in some places,” he added.
Work taking place now includes replacement of the causeway bridge leading to Cape Forchu, along with maintenance of the seawall.
Patching work will take place on the seawall, which was raised from about five feet to close to eight feet in the early 1970s. A curve was added on the seaward side to direct waves downwards, but spray over the road and armour stone is a common sight at high tide in a storm.
On the west side of the causeway, on the north side of the road, beach stone is washing onto the road. Some of the armour stone may be placed there, says Cushing.
Traffic lights are in place while the bridge is being worked on to control access to the single lane. The bridge was in serious need of replacement.
Cushing says after a Transportation and Infrastructure department official saw the state of the metal bridge in the spring of 2017, he took a picture of the holes in the platform.
“Some of them you could actually put your foot through,” says Cushing.
By the end of the next week there were patches on them.
The south side of the road is eroding all along the west approach to the bridge.
Yarmouth Bar is home port to 15-20 fishing boats. The wharves are separated from the sea on the west side by the armour stone, where mounds of beach stone have washed through in some areas.
“When you see that much beach stone on the inward side of the beach, you know there’s a problem,” says Cushing.
Some of the areas that won’t be addressed in this project include inner harbour flooding on the two corners just before entering Yarmouth Bar.
The area around the Lost Fishermen’s monument is particularly susceptible to flooding.
“That piece of land around the monument is so low and the tides are so high, there’s really no place for it to drain at high tide,” says Cushing.
“The only thing they could really do is build the road up higher, but then the monument would still be down low. It’s a Catch-22.
“Unfortunately, this kind of stuff is expensive to do,” says Cushing.
No definite date for completion has been provided for the work now underway at Yarmouth Bar, as it is weather dependent.
Dec.7, 2017 Time and tide undermining corner of road into Yarmouth Bar
Jan. 30, 2018 Councillor concerned about Yarmouth Bar road flooding
