St John’s Branch Trace residents in tears as bridge restores access after 2 years

For more than two years, res­i­dents of St John’s Branch Trace, Av­o­cat en­dured the dai­ly hard­ship of car­ry­ing gro­ceries across a flood­gate to reach their homes, haul­ing garbage along the same route and re­ly­ing on a boat to cross the riv­er when some­one fell ill.

For the 40 res­i­dents, par­tic­u­lar­ly the el­der­ly, the col­lapse of the bridge on Ju­ly 10, 2024, turned or­di­nary dai­ly ac­tiv­i­ties in­to dif­fi­cult, dis­tress­ing jour­neys.

Full coverageBailey Bridge Reopens Avocat Access After Godineau River Crossing Collapsed5 reports

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On Fri­day, af­ter two years and three months, they fi­nal­ly re­gained ve­hic­u­lar ac­cess to their homes with the open­ing of a new Bai­ley bridge, prompt­ing some res­i­dents to hold back tears as they re­called the hard­ships they had en­dured.