On 14 April 2010, the causeway's gates were opened permanently as part of a $68 million three-phase project designed to restore the river. The river will no longer flow through the causeway gates at all come 2020, when a permanent bridge will be completed to redirect water the way it naturally flowed. A popular belief suggests that the name derives from the French term ""petit coude"", meaning "little elbow". In fact, the name derives from an indigenous word, probably Maliseet or, possibly Mi'kmaq. According to Maliseet Elder and linguist Dr. Peter Paul of Woodstock Reserve, the name refers to a wall of water rushing in: "now they call that "petakuyak." [It] means 'sound of thunder,' well, the rush of water coming in like a thunderstorm." If the term has a Mi'kmaq origin, it could have been derived from the word "Petkootkweăk", meaning "the river that bends like a bow", a reference to the right angle bend near Moncton. Acadians transformed this to "Petcoudiac" or "Petitcoudiac", which was modified to "Petitcodiac" by British settlers. The river's heavy sedimentation led to the nickname "Chocolate River", due to the resulting brown tint. When the Petitcodiac River Causeway was built, an additional of this sediment began to accumulate in the 4.7 km (2.9 mi) of river downstream from it. The river measures about from its source near Petitcodiac to its mouth at Shepody Bay; its source derives from the confluence of the Anagance and North rivers in western Westmorland County. The Anagance River arises from its tributaries, Hayward Brook and Holmes Brook, and drains from the south-east of the Petitcodiac River, while the North River drains from the north. From the confluence, the river passes under the bridge on Route 106 in Petitcodiac, The road then follows the river to Moncton on the left side of the river. Route 1 crosses the river a few kilometres downstream to join Trans-Canada Highway 2. The community of River Glade precedes Petitcodiac River's right tributary, Pollett River, with a watershed of . As the waterway runs past Salisbury, its final major right tributary, Little River (formerly known as Coverdale River), joins it.