A six-month, $17 million rehabilitation project on the Reversing Falls Railway Bridge will keep it operating well into the future.

The bridge was built in 1922.

Anne McInerney of J.D. Irving Ltd. said says the concrete piers that support the 563-foot deck plate girder section of the bridge near the Pulp & Paper mill were showing signs of decay.

“The way in which the chief engineer had explained it was the cement was beginning to show signs of deterioration,” McInerney said.

The rehabilitation project included building a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall which was backfilled with150-thousand metric tons of aggregate.

In a news release, the company said “this monumental job would have been impossible without the collective expertise of the team that built it”.

Eighty workers put in 90,000 hours to refurbish the Reversing Falls railway bridge, including engineers, technicians, operators, skilled tradespeople and labourers from JDI groups including CFM, Gulf Operators, Project Engineering and Irving Equipment.

Teams from JDI worked with Irving Oil and Enbridge crews as they worked on their respective pipelines which are connected to the bridge.

The Reversing Falls Railway Bridge has provided a rail link between east and west Saint John connecting customers on the east side with access to Port Saint John, the Lancaster Logistics Park and the larger railway network.

How do you make a 100-year-old bridge last for another 100? We worked for 6 months to do exactly that by building a mechanically-stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall to keep the railway safe and operational. #SaintJohn

Read more on the JDI Newsroom | https://t.co/a6vkxhzds5 pic.twitter.com/AQ0LbXVqcm

— J.D. Irving, Limited (@jdirvinglimited) December 9, 2022