Ingramport upset over clear cutting for 103 connector

WATCH ABOVE: Motorists regularly travelling highway 103 along the south shore have noticed a new connector under construction between Tantallon and Hubbards. Work at the other end onto to route 3 is also well underway, but area residents at Ingramport aren’t happy. Global’s Ray Bradshaw reports.

INGRAMPORT, NS – Motorists regularly travelling highway 103 along the South Shore have noticed a new connector road under construction between Tantallon and Hubbards. Work to bring the road onto route 3 is also well underway, but area residents at Ingramport aren’t happy.

Steve Gilbert of Ingramport calls the work an eyesore. “I was not Ingramport turnoff negative. I wasn’t,” said Gilbert, who has lived in the area his whole life and in his Ingramport home for the past 20 years. “I said if it can be done right – good, I’m all for it.”

There were at least three options for the connector, and Gilbert said the Department of Transportation chose the one going into Ingramport. Gilbert doesn’t like what he sees.

“We’ve got a clear cut on the other side of that hill that was started as forty hectares and is now 75 hectares, and we had no choice over that,” said Gilbert.

Isaac Karam, a Project Engineer with the Department of Transportation, defended the project. “One of the reasons this was our best option, was it’s location – it’s proximity is pretty well half way between the two other exits.”

Gilbert said the original proposal was that only one home would be removed, but said it’s up to three homes. One was relocated to East River, and last week another was torn down and an ‘A’ frame cottage will also be demolished. “So it’s changed,” said Gilbert, “and all I’m saying is, they presented one thing and did another.”

The former railway line, now part of ‘Rails to Trails,’ runs alongside the road. The land is being cleared much farther back than Gilbert thinks is necessary. “They do not care about the people of Ingramport,” he said, “they do not care about the environment.”

“We’re not clearing any more trees than what’s required as per the plans,” said Karam. “If we have taken more trees than is necessary there’s always the possibility to re-landscape the area”

There will be a roundabout where the connector road joins Route 2. Karam said soft lighting will be installed. “It’s going to be the new L-E-D lighting and it won’t deflect so much into areas where lightning isn’t required.”