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Route 1

History

Route 1 dates back to the original numbering system for New Brunswick. Until 1965, it consisted only of the portion between St. Stephen and Saint John. That year, it was extended northeastward to Sussex as Route 2 (which had formerly assumed that routing) was re-routed to follow the Trans-Canada Highway entirely.

The Saint John Throughway and Harbour Bridge were built during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The bridge opened in 1968, but the Throughway was not completed to either end of it until 1976, and the entire project was not completed until 1979. Until the 1970s, Route 1 followed a complex maze of Saint John city streets (now mostly part of Route 100), crossing the Reversing Falls Bridge. The short-lived Route 1A directed travellers to the new Harbour Bridge. The Mackay Highway, an undivided road bypassing the Hampton Highway through the fast-growing suburbs of Rothesay and Quispamsis, also opened in the late 1960s. (The Hampton Highway was known as Route 9 for a short time, but became part of 100 in 1976.)

Other upgrades outside of Saint John occurred as well during that time period. In 1968, the section between Hampton and Sussex was rerouted to the south side of the Kennebecasis River, bypassing the downtowns of Hampton and Norton. The former route on the north side became Route 121. In 1973, a new section across the top of the St. Andrews peninsula opened, with the former route becoming part of Route 127. St. George was bypassed in 1978.

In the late 1990s, Route 1 underwent more major improvements. The section west of Saint John to Lepreau, as well as the St. George bypass, was upgraded and twinned in 1997; as were the Mackay Highway in 1993, a new section between Quispamsis and Hampton in 1994, and another new highway from Hampton to Sussex in 1999. In 2001, Route 1 assumed a portion of four-lane highway from Sussex to River Glade that was formerly part of Route 2.

Future Plans

A St. Stephen bypass is under construction that will avoid the bottleneck at the downtown bridge across the St. Croix River, which has only worsened with the new US Customs regulations after 9/11. The bypass will utilize the St. Stephen Drive, a bypass built in 1991 meant to siphon truck traffic to the smaller Milltown crossing. An extension eastward to bypass the heavily developed Oak Bay area is also under construction. The route of this new alignment is in red on the map above.

The DOT has purchased land in Charlotte County, particularly between Pocologan and Lepreau, for a right-of-way for further four-lane upgrades in those areas. Construction of this segment is expected in the near future.

Another interchange on the Saint John Throughway, at One Mile House on the east side, is under development that will, among other things, facilitate easier access to the Irving Oil Refinery. The interchange will connect to Rothesay Avenue near Thorne Avenue and is slated to open around 2009.

Route 1A

There have been two Route 1A's. The first 1A was known as the St. Andrews Cut-Off, a short 0.5-mile connector about halfway up the St. Andrews peninsula. Route 1 served the town of St. Andrews, at the tip of the peninsula. In 1965, 1A became part of mainline Route 1, but has been unnumbered since the construction of the new highway across the top of the peninsula in 1972.

The second 1A, as described above, connected the city centre and east side to the Harbour Bridge in Saint John after its construction in 1968. The number was discontinued by 1976, replaced by the Saint John Throughway and Route 100, although one blank shield which (presumably) formerly read 1A can still be seen on eastbound Chesley Drive on the railway overpass at Hilyard Street.

Harbour Bridge

Route 1 crosses the Saint John River on the Harbour Bridge, near the city's port. The Harbour Bridge is the only toll road in New Brunswick, collecting a 50-cent toll for passenger vehicles(up from 25 cents at the start of 2007 - the first toll raise in the bridge's history). The bridge is maintained by the Saint John Harbour Bridge Authority.

Guide

Route 1 begins at the U.S./Canadian border in beautiful downtown St. Stephen. After cruising east along the shore on Water Street for a few blocks, Route 1 turns north onto King Street to lead out of town. On the outskirts of St. Stephen is the Ganong chocolate factory, who was world-famous for its wares in the mid-20th century, and is still popular across Canada.

Route 1 bears to the right at an intersection just past the factory and starts eastward towards Saint John. Oak Bay is a few miles outside the city, just off Route 1. There is a locally-run tourist information bureau at the intersection with Route 127. The next 15 km of NB 1, which is limited-access, was built in the 1970s, and a small part around Bonaparte Lake is divided.

The old highway picks up again at the next intersection with 127, although it is sparsely inhabited territory. A 4-lane bypass was constructed of the town of St. George, which is the gateway to Deer and Campobello Islands (one of the most scenic parts of New Brunswick), as well as to the mythical Lake Utopia. When this area was first settled by the British, the Crown had granted tracts of land to residents of that country, not knowing it was submerged in ten-plus feet of water. It reminded some of a "Utopia", which is where the name of the lake comes from.

Just past St. George is the town of Pennfield, which is the gateway to Blacks Harbour and to Grand Manan Island, and home of a Royal Air Force station in World War II.

The next village is Pocologan, which is home to one of the most scenic stretches of Route 1, although the bridge over the inlet of the Bay of Fundy detracts from the beauty. New River Beach Provincial Park is a few kilometres to the east.

At the village of Lepreau, Route 1 becomes a freeway, which it stays for the remainder of its routing. Off Route 790, reached by exit 86, is the troubled Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, which is seemingly always down for maintenance. After a couple of interchanges for suburban communities, plus a couple of nice lake vistas, Route 1 enters the city of Saint John.

Saint John, with a metropolitan population of 125,000, is New Brunswick's largest city and the 24th biggest in Canada. Eastbound travellers can stop by the tourist information bureau (in season), just past the Route 7 interchange. The west side, formerly the City of Lancaster, is heavily industrial and working-class, home to a large brewery and a paper mill. Also on the west side is the Irving Nature Park, a nice retreat on Sand Cove Road. (More on the Irvings a few paragraphs down.)

Exit 120 leads to a ferry that crosses the Bay of Fundy to Digby, Nova Scotia. Also off that exit is the Carleton Martello tower, a historic 19th-century fort that is now preserved as a tourist trap.

Route 1 then proceeds to cross the Harbour Bridge, which once again has the only toll collected in New Brunswick. On the bridge, you can see the Reversing Falls (where the high tides of the Bay of Fundy cause the Saint John River to flow upstream at times), as well as the city's port.

At the other end of the bridge is the city's centre (called uptown, not downtown, thanks to it being on a hill.) Easily visible from the highway is Harbour Station, a hockey arena and performance centre, a symbol of the city centre's turn-around in the 1990s.

The East Side of Saint John is known for having Canada's largest oil refinery, owned and operated by Irving Oil. The Irvings are a household name in New Brunswick. From K.C. Irving's first service station in Bouctouche in the 1920s, his empire expanded and grew back to Saint John. The privately-owned Irving empire now includes oil, forestry, construction, shipbuilding, newspaper and radio companies and is worth millions, if not billions, of dollars.

Route 1 now turns northeast, keeping Rockwood Park to the northwest, and the commercial development of Rothesay Avenue to the southeast. Past the Rothesay Avenue interchange, it becomes the Mackay Highway, one of the oldest freeways in the province. It bypasses the affluent Kennebecasis River Valley towns of Rothesay and Quispamsis.

The next town up the river, and up Route 1, is Hampton, which is mainly based on farming, as is the smaller community of Norton. The village of Apohaqui was the birthplace of Frank McKenna, one of Canada's most well-known and popular premiers of recent memory.

Route 1 then enters Sussex, the heart of the largest major dairy farming region in eastern Canada. The Sussex area is also known for being a haven for covered bridges - over a dozen in and around the area.

Until 2001, Route 1 ended here, at the Trans-Canada Highway (Route 2). When the completely new Fredericton-Moncton highway opened that fall, however, Route 1 assumed the old TCH routing east of Sussex, with the section northwest of Sussex becoming part of Route 10. The interchange (which dated from the 60s, and whose tight turning radii caused a bus to topple in 2001 killing four American children) was later reconfigured. Route 1 passes the Four Corners section of Sussex, then turns northeast through more farming country to Petitcodiac.

Route 1 now ends at the TCH interchange near River Glade. 

Junction/Exit List

(c) 1997-2007 J.P. Kirby. All rights reserved.