PORT HAWKESBURY: A new conceptual plan for a major overhaul of Reeves Street is only days away from reaching the provincial and federal governments, following a recent round of joint discussions between town officials and engineers from Nova Scotia’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (DTIR).
Port Hawkesbury’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), confirmed earlier this week that discussions between DTIR engineers and the town’s municipal planners have produced a joint conceptual plan that is currently undergoing what Doyle described as “final edits” in the run-up to a formal pitch to provincial and federal funding bodies.
“It’s a very exciting project – we look at it as transformative,” Doyle told The Reporter Monday morning.
“It’s really in final edits right now, just to make sure that we have everything we need and that it’s presenting the best case that we can.”
The multi-layered project includes revised entry and exit points for Reeves Street, overhauls to the lane structure to allow for active-transportation lanes, an official extension of Pitt Street past the SAERC high school site into the parking lot that serves Port Hawkesbury’s Provincial Building, and a redesign of the entry point to Granville Street which includes the replacement of that intersection’s current bridges with a small park project.
The Reeves Street conceptual plan also includes such aesthetic elements as the planting of trees, the establishment of benches and similar “street furniture,” and the coinciding launch of the façade and streetscape program for several Port Hawkesbury businesses, Doyle added. He pointed out that town officials plan to hold further discussions with local business leaders to strengthen this aspect of the conceptual design prepared last week by municipal and provincial representatives.
“We’re really at the concept stage in terms of getting our proposal in and trying to get funding and trying to get things moving, so the changes that will come about through final design will change from now to construction,” the CAO explained.
“But the community consultation portion, specifically with business owners, is one component that’s integral to the process.”
The new concept plan also includes a long-desired connection between the town’s main thoroughfare and the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) Strait Area Campus, which is located on the outskirts of Port Hawkesbury near the boundary line shared with Port Hastings.
“That’s one of the things we discussed with [DTIR], is how that fits into the road and how that can be located and how we can achieve that link,” he noted.
“It involves changing the lane structure and a number of items that affect that end of Reeves Street… It’s a major component.”
The CAO added that he expects to update these efforts at this Thursday evening’s meeting of town council’s Committee-of-the-Whole, which is open to the public.
The Reeves Street design plans are separate from the consultation process DTIR is currently undertaking across the province with regards to highway twinning in several parts of Nova Scotia. The department’s public meetings, including a gathering slated for Thursday, February 23 in Port Hawkesbury, were sparked in part by a report compiled by CBCL Limited on behalf of the department that suggested 6.75 kilometres of highway between Port Hawkesbury and Port Hastings could be considered for twinning.