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By SHAWN BERRY
berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com

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The phone at the 4 Corners Country Store in Ripples is ringing off the hook these days.

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the daily gleaner/shawn berry photo

LONG DETOUR: Ripples business owner Jim Craig says the provincial government needs to act soon to fix a section of road that collapsed last week from heavy rains.

"People are calling me asking when the bridge is going to be fixed," said owner Jim Craig, who runs the store at the intersection of Coy Road and Route 670.

Craig has no answer for the callers. He's been asking the same question since Oct. 29, the day after a culvert collapsed and a 25-metre section of Coy Road between the store and Clarks Corner washed out.

"We can't seem to get a straight answer (from the provincial government)," he said. "This has really frustrated a lot of people in the area."

Craig, who moved to Ripples about 16 months ago from Alberta, said residents have seen no signs of work at the site and haven't been told when the road will be repaired.

The lack of action and communication is eating away at Craig, who relies on traffic coming from the opposite side of the washed-out road for his business.

"The (government has) done nothing. They put those barricades up and they walked away," he said. "They've told residents nothing. They didn't tell us when they are going to start working, how they are going to start or even if they are going to start."

A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation said Thursday the province plans to erect a new bridge at the location by early next year.

Residents said it's a blessing the road didn't collapse when the school bus crossed for its morning run Oct. 28.

Craig said road deterioration was first noticed around 9 a.m. that morning.

It appeared as though water from heavy rains undermined the culvert, causing it to collapse and bring the road over it down, he said.

Craig isn't alone in his frustration.

Holly Denton lives on the opposite side of the washout on Route 690.

Her four-kilometre drive to work in Ripples is now a 22-kilometre detour through Lakeville Corner.

"We want it fixed now. We don't want to wait. Why can't we have a temporary bridge, like "¦ a Bailey bridge?"

Some members of the military who live in the community have suggested a Bailey bridge - a portable, pre-fabricated bridge designed by military engineers - could be installed at the location within 48 hours.

Craig said he has followed up with a phone call to military engineers at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown and is awaiting a response.

Garfield Dodge, who lives at the intersection of Coy Road and Route 690, is also making the detour to get to Ripples.

"The biggest thing I worry about is the ambulance getting down to the seniors' home," he said.

"It's inconvenient for the fire trucks and the ambulances and the school buses.

"I don't know why they can't make some kind of arrangement."

A one-lane temporary bridge would be better than nothing, he said.

But no one seems to have a timeline for when that might happen.

Tracey Burkhardt, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation, said late Thursday afternoon that a bridge will be built in the coming months to replace the culvert.

"The department plans to start work next week shaping the road and removing the old culvert," she said.

"Instead of replacing the culvert, we will be building a small bridge at that location," she said.

The bridge is expected to be completed early next year.

The decision to replace the culvert with a bridge was made as a result of a hydraulic analysis of how much water was passing through the culvert. The work is pending environmental approval.