Fredericton, New Brunswick experienced back-to-back spring floods in 2018 and 2019, both lasting for over a week. For each flood, a significant portion of the arterial transportation network was disrupted, and commuters struggled to travel from one side of the river to the other for work, hospital visits and other activities that are often taken for granted. Persistent flood risk has resulted in over two decades of efforts to ensure that the City’s infrastructure is more resilient. Fredericton has relied on a commitment to asset management planning and a long-term vision to guide this work. This has led to changes, such as culverts that are sized 20% above a 1:100 return period; the use of active transportation (e.g., cycling); and rail-corridor trails that have been used as sites for water mains to increase redundancy, and also to act as alternative transportation routes when flooding disrupts vehicle traffic.
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