Busy Dieppe street plagued by flooding

One of the busiest streets in Dieppecontinues to have problems with flooding after attempts to raise it failed.

High tide and rain have resulted in lane closures along Acadie Avenue, which is travelled by almost 24,000 vehicles a day.

"It's like this every year where it's flooded," said resident Kevin Gautreau. "As soon as the nice weather comes in it's flooded and the same story every year."

The road was built through marshland and trying to raise it hasn't worked, said Mayor Yvon LaPierre.

"It keeps going down because it's a marsh just like a sponge and every time you add asphalt, of course it keeps sinking."

Dieppe's main water line runs underneath the road, which creates other problems, he said.

"As the road keeps compressing there is a danger to break our main line," said LaPierre.

The city had an excavator clearing snow and ice from the sinking road Tuesday and through the night.

The city is also spending$500,000 on an engineering study to solve the problem, said LaPierre.

"There's an engineering study that is still ongoing to find a long-term solution on how we're going to raise the bed of the road by about three feet and that should help and clear the situation for the foreseeable future," said LaPierre.

It's estimated itwould cost $10 million to $12 million dollars to raise the level of the road by a metre.

LaPierre says work carried out last summer on AcadieAvenue that resulted in long detours was to put in a new sewer line and had nothing to do with trying to prevent flooding.