VITAL STATISTICS:

  • LENGTH: 229 km - 142 mi
  • WESTERN TERMINUS: Maine border, St. Stephen [ME 3]
  • EASTERN TERMINUS: Rt 2/TCH, near Petitcodiac
  • COUNTIES: Charlotte, Saint John, Kings, Westmoreland
  • INCORPORATED COMMUNITIES (1996 pop. in 1000's): St. Stephen (5), St. George (2), Saint John (72), Rothesay (9), Quispamsis (13), Hampton (4), Norton (1), Sussex (4), Petitcodiac (1)
  • TWINNED SECTIONS: near St. Andrews (3 km), St. George area (3 km), Lepreau to Sussex (105 km), Sussex to Petitcodiac (42 km) -- 153 km total
  • FUNDY COASTAL DRIVE: St. Stephen to route 127 [western junction] (14 km), route 127 [eastern junction] to Lepreau (64 km), Musquash to Rothesay (41 km) -- 119 km total
  • RIVER VALLEY DRIVE: Saint John to Hampton (44 km) -- 44 km total


    • Route 1, as originally laid out in the 1930s, only stretched from St. Stephen to Saint John. From St. Stephen, it followed the St. Croix river southeastward to its mouth at St. Andrews, then back up the shore of Passamaquoddy Bay to St. George, then staying relatively close to the Bay of Fundy from there to downtown Saint John.

    In 1965, when route 2 was rerouted away from Saint John, route 1 was extended east of the city, along 2's old Kennebecasis Valley route through Quispamsis, Hampton and Norton to Sussex, where it met up with the new route 2, now part of the TCH. This approximately coincided with the opening of the MacKay Highway, which bypasses the Rothesay and Quispamsis areas.

    As well, route 1 also was redirected a few kilometres away from St. Andrews by means of a small ~1 mile cut-off for inter-city traffic that was formerly route 1A, with the old loop into town becoming new route 127. This "bypass" was bypassed itself by 1973 when a new, mainly controlled-access alignment across the top of the peninsula that St. Andrews sits on was built. In 1968, another new alignment on the other end of route 1 opened, on the other side of the Kennebecasis River, bypassing Hampton, Norton and Sussex and connecting to the MacKay Highway, as the old route became route 121.*

    *Boy, do I love run-on sentences? :)

    It was around this time that the city of Saint John underwent a massive urban renewal project, of which one of the centrepieces was a major freeway crossing the city. The first step was the construction of the oft-discussed Harbour Bridge in 1968, run by the city's Harbour Bridge Commission. It was, and still is, a toll bridge, but the toll has never increased since the bridge opened - 25 cents. Originally, it was connected to local streets, but by 1972 construction had begun on the Throughway through the North End and West Side. By 1976 it was completely open to Crown Street, and by 1979 it had been connected to the Mackay Highway, bypassing the then-new strip development on Rothesay Avenue.

    Through the 1990s, twinning of the majority of route 1 (except for the Saint John Throughway, which was already twinned) commenced. The first portion opened in 1994, between Quispamsis and Hampton, bypassing a rapidly developing part of the route in the Hammond River area. In 1999, that freeway was extended almost to the end of the road in Sussex, although there was still one very small non-twinned stretch just before the interchange with the old TCH.

    West of Saint John, twinning was completed to Lepreau in 1997, in addition to a small section in the St. George area, and extending it completely to St. Stephen has been considered, but it is doubted construction will start in the near future. The main exception is at the very western end, in the border town of St. Stephen. Traffic slows to a crawl through the downtowns of both St. Stephen and Calais, Maine, although that will probably change soon: new routes are being proposed for a bypass of the area. See NBDOT's and MDOT's sites for more on the project. One small measure has already been taken: the construction of the St. Stephen Truck Route in 1991, which bypasses St. Stephen to the north from route 3 to Church Street, designed to funnel truck traffic away from downtown to the smaller Milltown crossing upriver.

    When the new TCH between Fredericton and Moncton opened in 2001, route 1 was extended further. It now continues along the former TCH route from Sussex to where it meets with the new road just east of Petitcodiac, a road which was already 4-laned in the early 1990s. There is still a 2-lane stretch outside Sussex, which should be twinned by 2003.

    Exit list

    Pictures to be added later

    Back to New Brunswick Roads