Disobedient trail users have made finishing construction at Moncton’s Irishtown Nature Park more difficult for contractors.
Located in the North End, visitors cannot access three of the park’s trails due to work that will upgrade the trails.
However, recently, hikers have broken through the barriers to access their favourite trails despite the ongoing work.
“It’s fairly common for us to see people not necessarily respecting our signage that says trails are closed when we’re working,” said Dan Hicks, Director of Park Operations at the City of Moncton.
“This particular season at Irishtown Park, people seem to be especially anxious about losing a bit of a trail for the construction period and seem to be crossing our construction barriers.”
The disruptions have not impacted the timeline for the construction, as Hicks expects the projects to finish on schedule.
Contractors, however, have reported instances of confrontation and threats from those making their way onto the closed pathways.
“People have expressed their frustrations to the contractors, and you know we would certainly hope people be respectful. The contractors are there doing a job, and the sooner they can get through, the sooner we can open the trails back up for everyone again,” Hicks said.
For Hicks, there are serious safety concerns that arise from these trespassers. He said on an average day, dump trucks, excavators, rollers, skid steers could be on-site and those operating the machinery may have limited vision.
“Obviously we want to make sure everybody’s safe, so if there’s people accessing the worksite, then they have to stop and ask people to use alternate routes, and it does slow down their production time,” said Hicks
Since the project was awarded as a unit rate contract, the contractor’s costs will be based on unit and cannot be increased by this project.
He warns continuing instances similar to those at Irishtown could affect the potential costs for future jobs.
