In 1968, construction of the Mactaquac Dam 15 kilometres upriver from Fredericton closed the river to navigable traffic above the city. That same year saw residents and government officials begin to discuss a replacement for the Carleton Street Bridge, now that the costly navigation requirement was eliminated. By the early 1970s, the provincial government (the project's primary proponent) settled on an ambitious traffic planning scheme which would see a single new low profile bridge constructed from the foot of Westmorland Street with appropriate collector roads along the waterfront floodplain.