With Canada Day just around the corner, the city is putting up barriers to protect the retaining wall along Officers' Square after finding out the section along Queen Street needs some major work.

While completing work on St. Anne's Point Boulevard, the city found the wall was somewhat unstable and decided to do further assessments, explained Sean Lee, the assistant director of engineering and operations with the city.

On Wednesday morning, city staff received the results of the assessments, which showed the wall is "not in great shape" and the upper part is fairly fragile, Lee said.

The city of Fredericton will barricade off the Queen St. wall for Officers’ Square. Jason Young is a senior engineer CBCL Consulting Engineer. He explains the wall problems. <a href="https://t.co/0KOqagj1or">pic.twitter.com/0KOqagj1or</a> —@phildrost

With Officers' Square a hub of celebrations in Fredericton on July 1, the city wants to prevent people from climbing on the wall and encountering safety hazards, he said.

"It can move or shift, so we just don't want people climbing on it or moving it or pushing it," he said, adding that the city fears it might actually topple over in a worst-case scenario.

Ahead of Canada Day, the city will be installing metal fencing on both sides of the wall along Queen Street.

On the Queen Street side, the fencing will be close to the wall so it doesn't impact the width of the sidewalk too much. On the side of the wall facing Officers' Square, the fence will be about seven to eight feet from the wall.

The city will look into temporary fixes for the wall in the coming weeks, Lee said. (Phillip Drost/CBC )

The city will look into temporary fixes in the coming weeks.

Officers' Square and the city's plans to give it a major upgrade have been the subject of controversy in recent weeks after the city revealed it plans to take down trees as part of the project.

But Lee said the decision to barricade the wall was "absolutely not" done as a way to draw attention to the need to refurbish the square.

"The timing is not great, but we found out this morning, so we moved ahead with it right away," he said Wednesday.