New BrunswickWith the Anderson Bridge closed to all traffic since Sept. 26 due to a truck accident, a New Brunswick cabinet minister says he hopes to have the replacement bridge that was already under construction open a bit earlier than planned. Loss of Miramichi bridge in busy season ‘depressing,’ says Wilson’s Point site managerHope Edmond · CBC News · Posted: Oct 06, 2025 4:24 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoTransportation and Infrastructure Minister Chuck Chiasson hopes to have the new bridge opened before the originally projected completion date of the end of the month. (Ed Hunter/CBC)With the Anderson Bridge closed to all traffic since Sept. 26 due to a truck accident, a New Brunswick cabinet minister says he hopes to have the replacement bridge that was already under construction open a bit earlier than planned. The Anderson Bridge spans the Northwest Miramichi River along Route 8 and is part of the highway between Miramichi and Fredericton. People are having to detour 29 kilometres after a boom truck hit it nearly two weeks ago, sustaining what the city has called “serious damage.” The bridge is more than 70 years old, and a $94.5-million project to replace it was announced back in 2017. The City of Miramichi posted this map on Sept. 26 showing the detour drivers would need to take to get around the Anderson Bridge after a truck accident that morning. (City of Miramichi/Facebook)Chuck Chiasson, the province’s minister of transportation and infrastructure, said he hopes the new bridge can open “a little bit before” the scheduled completion date given the disruption caused by the damage to the old bridge. “Hopefully if all goes well, we should have it open possibly by the end of the third week of October,” he said.WATCH | ‘You miss seeing families,’ Wilson’s Point official says:Province to maintain old bridge for off-road vehicle useQuadNB’s development co-ordinator says the Anderson Bridge, built more than 70 years ago, would serve as a key link over the Northwest Miramichi River for trails the association has planned in the Miramichi region.On Oct. 3, the province announced that the new bridge could be used by emergency vehicles, saying: “During times when contractor is not on site there will be a security team in place to monitor traffic and allow emergency vehicles through.””I really feel bad for the community and what I do ask of them is their patience,” Chiasson said. Kelly Cain, the deputy minister in Chiasson’s department, has said officials aren’t optimistic that the old bridge is “recoverable in any way.” At a standing committee on public accounts last week, Cain said the department is focusing on getting the new Anderson Bridge open, rather than fixing the current bridge. WATCH: Old Anderson Bridge could be turned over to trails association:Tammy Greene, the executive director of Wilson’s Point Historic Site, said she can’t wait until the end of the month for a new bridge because the closure has already had a “huge impact” on visitor numbers. Greene said it would be helpful if the department could open up one lane on the new bridge to non-emergency traffic before it is fully completed.Prime time for siteWilson’s Point Historic Site is located off the first exit before the Anderson Bridge on the south side of the river. The site is home to a 250-year-old cemetery, a church and walking trails. Greene said autumn is their busiest season for tourism, estimating that around 500 families usually come to the site each weekend at this time of year. “We’re getting a lot of tourists from other parts of the province, other parts of the country, that are coming here for the fall foliage,” she said. Tammy Greene, the executive director of Wilson’s Point Historic Site, says the bridge closure is hurting tourism during their busiest time of year. (Hope Edmond/CBC News)Due to the detour, though, Greene says they had just about 10 visitors the entire Sept. 26 weekend. “It’s kind of depressing,” she said. “It’s hurt a lot of businesses in the area and it’s definitely hurt us.”Greene suspects the closure will affect turnout for events being hosted at the historic site this month as well. The site’s biggest event of the year, the Great Miramichi Haggis Hunt and Fall Fair, is set to take place Oct. 11. The site is also hosting a haunted walk and a haunted book reading later in the month. We’re just kind of living on hope and we don’t know how it’s going to turn out.— Tammy Greene, Wilson’s Point Historic SiteGreene said the events will be “badly impacted if the bridge doesn’t open in time.”The events help raise money for site operations. If turnout is low, Greene said that could affect their budget for next year. “We’re just kind of living on hope and we don’t know how it’s going to turn out,” she said. ABOUT THE AUTHORHope Edmond is a reporter based in Moncton.
New Miramichi bridge could open within weeks but historic site fears season can’t be saved
