Moncton flooding fixes underway at Jonathan Creek

After several years of flooding problemsand negotiations about how to pay for repairs, work has started to fix an area in the west end of Moncton that is prone to flooding.

A CN culvert that dates back to the 1800s and drains water from Jonathan Creek into the Petitcodiac River is being replaced.

"Temporary track work required in advance of the culvert excavation project is completed, and crews now are moving forward with excavation work for the new culvert," CN spokesman Patrick Waldron in an emailed statement to CBC News.

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"The project is on schedule and and is expected to be completed in the fall."

CN Rail and the City of Moncton are splitting the $7.6 million cost of replacing the culvert.

Culvert replacements

Meanwhile,the city is working on a related project, replacing culverts on West Main Street that have led to cave-ins

Culverts were not big enough to handle the flow of storm water on some occasions.

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The spillway, which regulates the water flow in Jones Lake is also being repaired.

The cost of the spillway and culvert is $5.25 million, with a provincial contribution of $2.7 million toward the culvert work.

Hopeful for future

Alcide Richard, the director of design and construction for the city's engineering department, is hopeful the work will prevent flooding in the area.

"In the flooding business I can't ever guarantee that nobody's going to flood," he said.

"If we get a Saxby Gale type of event it's not going to be a good day in Moncton.These events are fortunately very very rare."

Richard says the project has been carefully designed.

"What I can tell you is that the CN culvert has been looked at from a maximum tailwater for the present and also for the future with climate change," he said.

"The flows that have been calculated are for 100years plus 20 per cent to account for climate change, so we've done everything that we could do alleviate the flooding, both in the CN case and the Jones Lake spillway and structure case, and it will mitigate the risk of flooding."

Richard says the city's total cost for the CN culvert project is$6.1 million dollars, which includes money for relocation of sewer and water lines along with the realignment of Assomption Boulevard.