At Grand Falls, the highway crosses to the west bank of the river and passes by Perth-Andover, Florenceville, and Hartland. At Woodstock the Saint John River turns east and the highway continues to parallel the river on a ridge several kilometres inland along the western bank. It passes south of Fredericton and Oromocto before crossing the river again at the northeastern edge of CFB Gagetown.
Over 2000-2003, several small four-lane controlled access sections on Route 2 between Fredericton and Edmundston were opened, most requiring construction of a new alignment. Federal cost-sharing was secured in 2003 to complete the last, and most costly segments, the 98 km (61 mi) gap between Woodstock and Grand Falls over the Appalachian Mountains.
Trans-Canada Highway moose fencing project completed (2009)
The installation of more than 27 km of wildlife fencing along the Trans-Canada Highway between Meductic and Woodstock was marked today by Transportation Minister Denis Landry. “With 327 km of fencing to be erected by next summer, my department’s wildlife mitigation program is making our highways safer by helping keep moose and deer off of the road,” said Landry. “I know that highway users and emergency first-responders between Meductic)and Woodstock are pleased with this new infrastructure.”
Aroostoock
South of the point where the Aroostoock River joined the Saint John River (and were during the “Pork And Beans War” of 1839, US and British forces faced each other only 30 metres apart, across the river. Here you will notice rocks with light-bands, called “ribbon rocks” that alternate layers of limestone and layers of shale.
Beechwood Park
Drainage from the last Ice Age washed down the Saint John River Valley to for a series of Terraces. These terraces were in turn eroded by the river forming today’s river bed. At Beechwood is a power dam, which was opened in 1955 and rises 18 metres. The dam has a capacity of 113 megawatts, and has a fish elevator to help them navigate the river
Florenceville
In this part of the Saint John River valley, potatoes are the major cash crop. The town is also the world headquarters of McCain Foods, the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen French Fries and other potato specialties. The company was started in 1957 with 30 employees, and now has 47 production facilities around the world, employing 20,000 people/ They sell one-third the word’s French fries in over 160 countries.
Hartland
Two bridges over the Saint John River show how bridge and road technology has changed over the years. There is the 391 m wooden covered bridge, the longest in the world, and right beside it a modern steel and concrete structure.
Woodstock-Somerville Bypass
In the 1950s, the highway used to travel along the Saint John River (now route 103) and have a junction in downtown Woodstock with Route 42 (now Route 560). Upstream of Woodstock, at Somerville, the 1960 Hugh John Flemming Bridge, just upstream from the historical Hartland Covered Bridge, moved river-crossing traffic off that heritage bridge. The route south from Jacksonville to Woodstock became the new Route 2A (renumbered Route 103 in 1965).
Mactaquac Dam Realignment
There was a re-alignment of Route 2 west of Fredericton with the flooding created by the 1968 Mactaquac Dam construction, which raised the river levels upstream by 40 metres. The dam also provided a bridge across the Saint John River at that point.
The flooding also forced abandonment of many old villages, and led to the creation of the King’s Landing Historical Settlement(about 5 km west of the Dam exit) to save several buildings, based on the success of Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg, Ontario when the upper St. Lawrence River valley was flooded for the St Lawrence Seaway.
Highway of Heroes (2012)
Trans-Canada Highway in New Brunswick officially named Highway of Heroes. In 2012, The Trans-Canada Highway (Route 2) in New Brunswick has been officially named the Highway of Heroes. The Highway of Heroes pays tribute to all fallen peacekeepers, soldiers, emergency responders, firefighters and law enforcement officers from or based in New Brunswick.
Fredericton Bypass
The initial a controlled-access 4-lane bypass of Fredericton was also built in about 1960, including the 1959 Princess Margaret Bridge (which replaced the Carleton Street Bridge for traffic to Route 8, 9, and Route 10) across the Saint John River, to the east of the downtown business district.
Traffic along Route 2 to Saint John would exited the bypass at what is now exit 7 for Route 7 (which replaced Route 2A). The old route meandering along the St John River was renumbered as the new Route 102 between Oromocto and Westfield.[
The Pokiok-Long Creek section (which includes two Jemseg river crossing and the new bypass to the south of Fredericton) was built between 2003 and 2006.This segment connects to the new Sussex bypass section between Jemseg and Moncton.