Quote:
Originally Posted by skyscraper_1
One must ask the effect of building the other two bridges had on the city. Yes, it did cause Dartmouth to sprawl out. However, it did provide a lot of opportunities for the city to grow. Burnside as it exists today(employing 15,000 people) would not be in existence if it was not for the bridges. Overall building these bridges was great for the city as a whole and I believe building a third bridge will do the same.
Also remember that a lot of this traffic will also be trucking and business related as well. Which will keep tractor trailers off the downtown streets.
|
Bit of a tangent. If we're going to spend a billion bucks why not just relocate the container port. That would get the trucks off the downtown streets and open a truly massive piece of very valuable land for more intense development. The more time I have spent thinking about the truck problem in downtown Halifax the more I find myself increasingly of the view that the port (except the cruise ships) is in the wrong place and should be moved. Only difficulty is where does it go? The harbour shore in Woodside isn't particularly well-used so that's a possibility but the position of McNab's Island would probably make things difficult. Still there is a rail line already along that side of the harbour and trucks would have the advantage of having access to the Circumferential instead of having to work their way through congested downtown streets. There is also land that could be used to the North of Shannon Park near Ocean Breeze Estates and BIO but I don't know about the depth of the Basin there or whether it would hurt the port to lose docks that large ships can come into without having to go under the bridges. Still BIO would be nice as it has rail and highway connections already in place and is right next to Burnside where a good chunk of the local truck traffic is going anyway.