The summer breeze often brings with it a familiar cloud of construction season dust.
“I’m sure that residents and motorists out there are seeing a lot of projects underway,” said Tiffany Chase senior communications adviser with Halifax Regional Municipality.
Construction zones have been popping up all over the municipality, particularly in the downtown core of Dartmouth.
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“It’s a necessary evil — someone said to me ‘it’s better to have construction for a few weeks then be known as ‘pot-hole’ alley,'” said Tim Rissesco, executive director of the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission.
Many of the sidewalks in downtown Dartmouth are being completely torn up, causing foot traffic obstacles for small businesses.
“Well I walked around the corner and I thought ‘oh my gosh, this is opening day, what are we going to do?'” owner of Stone Pizza on Alderney Drive, Allyson Harker said.
Harker recently joined the downtown Dartmouth business community and opened her doors in the middle of a construction zone. But she’s taking the sights and sounds in stride, raving about the friendliness of the workers.
“It’s a little inconvenient but the workers are great. They help people in and they put our sign out for us, they close the door when it’s too loud and they’re great,” Harker said.
The short construction season piggybacks on the short summer tourist season.
“Unfortunately the work has to take place during tourist season in our region but we do our best to make sure we have the appropriate signage and communication of projects in advance as much as possible,” Chase said.
For more information on construction projects throughout the region you can visit the Halifax Regional Municipality construction page.