Halifax street closures to last months as part of Cogswell redevelopment project

A section of Cogswell Street in Halifax will soon be closed for several months as crews continue work on the ongoing Cogswell District project.

The project will extend the downtown area’s entrance northward and create development blocks capable of supporting new residential and commercial developments for 2,500 people. It comes with a price tag of $122.6 million.

The Cogswell Interchange was built in the 1960s to accommodate a planned waterfront freeway that was never built. The municipality is now looking to right the wrong from its build.

During a recent tour of the project site to mark the development reaching the halfway point, the municipality outlined some of the work that still needs to be done — including a new transit hub, which is earmarked for four lanes, along with a complete lowering of the Cogswell Street interchange.

The interchange has to be trucked out of the existing intersections of Barrington Street and Cogswell Street, which is currently located on a hill. The city can’t blast in the area due to its proximity to heritage sites.

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In a release Wednesday, Halifax Regional Municipality said the street closures will take place in two phases.

Cogswell Street from Brunswick to Barrington streets will be closed from Oct. 18 until June 2024. Residents will be able to detour via Brunswick, Duke or Cornwallis streets, and a number of transit routes will also be re-routed.

“During Phase 1, crews will work on mass excavation, installing underground services and the construction of a new detour road that will open in conjunction with the beginning of Phase 2,” the release said.

In Phase 2, a new detour road connecting the new permanent Cogswell Street to Barrington Street will open. A section of Barrington Street will then close between the former Cogswell Street intersection to Duke Street from June until December 2024.

“During this closure, the Halifax Transit Terminal on Barrington Street will be temporarily relocated,” it said.

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Part this phase includes constructing a new transit hub that will host four bus lanes for transit to pick up passengers. There’s also going to be room along the transit hub for dedicated bus lanes. Busses are expected to begin parking in the fall of 2024.

The release said these closures will allow for the delivery of the new Barrington Street transit terminal 12 months ahead of schedule “and will result in a more consistent and predictable road network while work progresses in the Cogswell District.”

“By implementing these closures, the municipality is able to avoid a series of rolling road closures, lane drops and other disruptive activities,” the release said.

“Traffic modelling has been completed and the road network can accommodate these temporary changes.”

— with files from Global News’ Zack Power