Concerns raised as Brunswick Street work nears completion

Road work is nearly finished on Halifax’s Brunswick Street.

The work on Halifax’s Brunswick Street is almost finished.

Bike lanes have been added, and parking spaces have been removed.

Laura White, the councillor for the area, says the goal of the project was to do road maintenance while adding an overdue piece of the city’s AAA bike network.

“An exciting part of the project is: updates to pedestrian infrastructure like the crosswalks are shorter, which I like to see, and we also have an additional public space there,” White tells CTV News.

The public space will be at the intersection of Brunswick Street and Sackville Street, at the bottom corner of Citadel Hill.

White says some parking spaces will be reinstated, but it’s not clear how many.

Between the lines, however, concerns are being raised about traffic due to the layout of the intersection.

“Truckers do have to make deliveries down here,” said J.C. Goddard, the owner of a roadside company who makes traffic safety videos in Halifax. “This is a very, very, very nasty tight fit.”

While Goddard was being interviewed by CTV News on Friday, a delivery truck driver abandoned their plans to turn right off Brunswick heading down Sackville Street after not having enough space.

Brunswick Street, northbound approaching the intersection, now only has one lane, leaving less room for trucks to navigate.

Other trucks abandoned their turns after approaching the intersection, while others made it – slowly.

“This project has been seven or more years in the making,” Coun. White says in response. “Lots of design and lots of conversation. It’s being built according to the design.

“As far as narrow lanes go, that’s safer for pedestrians and whatnot, so that’s a positive.”

“I think it’s nice, especially for the bike riders,” says pedestrian and part-time driver and cyclist Jvin Barmar. “Also, it’s nice for the people walking around here.”

But he says there will be a lot to focus on when he drives through the area.

For Goddard, though, he worries that with additional light poles, visibility of pedestrians may be trickier.

“The way that this intersection is set up, there’s definitely, I feel, a lot of safety concerns,” he says.

Others also take issue with how the project is looking as it nears completion.

“I think that they almost made it more dangerous when they have all of the stuff going in and at the same intersection,” says Ceaira Hiemstra.

“There’s an interesting battle right now, obviously, with going green and allowing more people to bike downtown and things like that,” says Marvin Okello. “But how we go about that, we need to be a bit smarter about it.”

He says he drives, takes Uber and buses downtown. He believes traffic might get more congested because the right-turn lane southbound on Brunswick, leading up to Sackville Street, has been removed; now down to one lane.

According to Coun. White, the road work is to be completed by Dec. 4.

In response to questions from CTV News, a Halifax Regional Municipality spokesperson says the city thanks people for their patience “during these important roadway improvements.”

“The changes made at the intersection of Brunswick and Sackville streets include reducing pedestrian crossing distances, improving sightlines and increasing overall pedestrian safety, while maintaining road width and turning radius requirements for passenger vehicles and large transportation trucks that use this roadway,” the statement reads.

According to the city, remaining work includes landscaping, the public space and finishing up bike lanes.

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