Cogswell interchange will need $500,000 before replacement
By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
Wed. Feb 11 - 5:36 AM
Linda Mosher
The Cogswell Street interchange, an enduring tribute to the city’s abandoned plan to build a harbour-side freeway, is showing its age.
Regional council heard Tuesday night that some money will have to be spent maintaining the 40-year-old downtown overpass before it can be demolished once and for all.
"Staff believe, although the lands are clearly an asset to the municipality, the current infrastructure is a liability and HRM needs to start planning now for future capital replacement," city staffer Jacqueline Hamilton told councillors.
In fact, up to $500,000 needs to be spent on maintenance work in the next six to eight months, she said, although the province will split the cost since it has ownership interests in the land.
The city plans to tear down the interchange to reclaim and redevelop the 6.5 hectares of land. An anchor building and a Metro Transit hub could be part of the area’s new look, she said.
The new landscape would also transform the northern gateway into downtown Halifax and reconnect the north end to the downtown and waterfront neighbourhoods, Ms. Hamilton said.
Council approved tendering out a master plan to outline the scope of the work and plan for reserve funding for the capital costs of the project.
•In other business, councillors approved the examination of snow-clearing standards in upcoming budget debates.
Coun. Linda Mosher (Purcells Cove-Armdale) brought forward the motion to update the standards, established in 1998.
They call for residential streets to be cleared within 24 hours of a storm.
Last week, one of Ms. Mosher’s elderly constituents was taken to hospital by ambulance, but only after paramedics scrambled over snowbanks and down a steep hill with the unconscious patient on a stretcher because plows hadn’t cleared the street.
"This is a serious safety issue; this resident could have died," she said.
Ms. Mosher would like to see plows go down every residential street, even if it’s only to clear one side, within 12 hours.
Council’s budget debates will be held in the spring.
(
apugsley@herald.ca)