The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-07-18
|OF INTEREST TO
 TOURIST TRAVEL
Extensive Repairs COm- pleted on St GeOrge-St
 Andrew Highway
AT NEW BRUNSWICK

Fredericton, N. B., July 1S.-- With the completion this week of the extensive repairs to the School House bridge approach. on the St. George-St. Andrews highway, three miles from Chamcook station, of- ficials and workmen of the bridge branch of the department of high ways will have overcome a rather difficult piece of highway construc- tion.
 For more than a week this high way has been under repair because of the collapse of the whole cm- bankment on the road. At one time there was 12 feet of water over the roadway surface and workmen have been busily engaged in an cf- fort to restore the road 10 it's pre- vious condition.
 The highway is located in the Bocabec district of Charlotte coun- ty and when the road collapsed some 250 feet was covered by wa ter. The road at this point is sur rounded on all sides by ledge rock, being located in that part of New Brunswick where the finest monu- mental granite of various shades is quarried.
 From Glacial Period Many hundreds of years ago, this province experienced great glacial 1 disturbances which tore down through this section of New Bruns- wick and caused great Assures or hollows to be formed In the rock surface of the country. At this par ticular point a lake was apparently formed which has, on down through the succeeding years, been grad ually filling up with vegetable matter, as the material obtained from the bed of this hlIed-in lake shows no signs of mineral deposit. When the roadway was put through between St. George and St. stephen about 1G0 years ago, this lake, which had then become com pletely filled, and vegetation had started on the top of the deposit, was corduroyed over to make a roadway. As this gradually settled, q continuous open CribWork was placed thereon which gave service to the then OK teams, and as fur ther settlement took place more cribWork was added.
 24 Feet of Crlbwork. | Travel in the early life of the country was chie1y by horses and oxen and the loads were light com pared with the prcsent-day traffic, consequently, the settlement talk ing place in the lake was very slow. Since the introduction of motor traffic, this cribwork bridge has had to be added to until 1t is estimated that the depth of the cribwork across this point is about "A feet. Maintenance at consider able expense had to be added each year during the last four or five years on account of the settlement becoming more apparent each sea- son.
 During this spring q consider able amount of widening has been done by the highway branch to the roadway in this section of the county, and a large amount of rock excavation had to be done, especially on tho insidcs of the curves, waste material therefrom being deposited in the approach to this bridge with the object of stone fill, and thus reducing the cost of future maintenance. A considerable amount of stone fill has already been placed in this lapproaCh until 1t Is estimated 10 be about 15 feet deep over the old cribWork.
 Some few days ago, shortly after q heavily loaded truck had passed over the bridge approach. the whole embankmcnt collapsed and settled, to tho bottom of the lake. , This settlement took place in tho