Work on the Sullivan’s Pond Storm Sewer Renewal Project is well underway — but it isn’t without controversy.
The $11.6-million endeavour will replace old pipes, create a new storm water system and expose some of Sawmill River.
“There’ll be a series of open channels now where people are, rather than have a pipe that’s completely buried underground, it’ll actually expose portions of the river again which will be fantastic,” said James Campbell, Halifax Water.
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The project has left a portion of Ochterloney Street closed. Something that’s causing a headache for commuters, pedestrians and especially local businesses.
“It has definitely shaken the building. We can’t open the windows because it’s dirty and dusty and super noisy,’ said Roz Wilson-Oliver, co-owner of Souper Duper Soup.
Not only is the walk-in traffic down significantly at Souper Duper Soup but the cafe’s parking lot is essentially cut off for the time being. The co-owners were planning to expand their business and move from their current basement location at 156 Ochterloney Street to a larger space upstairs in the same building.
“We had some extra funds that we were gonna put towards the move and unfortunately, our funds have been chewed up because of our walk-in traffic being down so much,” said Wilson-Oliver.
Souper Duper Soup says their October revenue this year is half of what it was in 2016.
“It has definitely chewed up the bottom line,” said Wilson-Oliver.
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The cafe has taken to social media to let people know they are open and encourage more business. They’ve even started a GoFundMe campaign.
“We have had some great community support when we posted on Facebook saying that we needed help because, quite frankly, we need help,” said Wilson-Oliver.
“We’ve actually started a GoFundMe page to help boost our upstairs move and our community has started to really rally around us and started to come in, but it’s hard to get here.”
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Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission says the construction on Ochterloney Street is having an impact on both downtown businesses and events in the area.
“We look forward to the enhancements that the daylighting and canal projects with have for our downtown district,” said the commission’s executive director Tim Rissesco.
“We’d encourage HRM to adopt construction mitigation policies that would better assist pedestrians, cyclists, and businesses. We appreciate that HRM provided an open-for-business sign but would have liked to have had it sooner and have had greater input into its design.”
Halifax Water says they understand the project is an inconvenience but that the work needs to be done.
“The alternative to not replacing the pipe would be the pipe collapsing, which of course nobody would want and we wouldn’t allow that to happen,” said Campbell.
“The pipe is in a very deteriorated condition so there’s no alternative other than to replace the pipe.”
In order to protect private and public property following widespread flooding during Hurricane Beth in the early 1970s, the current storm water system was constructed from Sullivan’s Pond to the Halifax Harbour.
Campbell says not only will the project be a showpiece when it’s complete but also work to prevent future flooding in the area. “This project is being designed for the one in a 100-year storm, so yes it’s a significant improvement over the deteriorating pipe that’s currently in the ground.”
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Officials say there is nothing in place from the municipality to compensate businesses when they suffer a loss because of ongoing construction projects.
“We’ve seen this happen before. Essentially, it’s a miniature version, of course, of what the folks in downtown Halifax have gone through on Argyle Street,” said Sam Austin, councillor for Dartmouth Centre.
“Anytime you lost parking out front, if anything it starts to look to potential customers that you don’t want to stop there, it affects businesses.”
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Due to the ongoing construction for the storm sewer project, the annual Remembrance Day ceremony at Sullivan’s Pond won’t be held at the cenotaph for the first time in more than 50 years.
After working with the city, the Legion has decided to move the service to the nearby band shell.
“A minor inconvenience,” Bill Brooks, president of the Royal Canadian Legion Somme Branch, says of the move.
“The city is making their plans on opening up the canal so, we were hoping that it’ll be done by now but it’s not so it is what it is.”
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Although it’s still early, officials are also looking at where the Sullivan’s Pond Christmas tree lighting will take place this year.
“There’s still planning in the works on that but the rough plan is they’e looking at Alderney Landing as opposed to Sullivan’s Pond because this isn’t expected to be wrapped up to the point where you can have several thousand people here for lighting a tree,” said Austin.
“It’s a year of disruptions at Sullivan’s Pond.”
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Halifax Water says the project is on time. It’s expected Ochterloney Street will re-open in December, however, work will continue into the new year.
“Building a city is a messy process,” said Austin.
“It’ll be well worth it when we’re on to the next phase, you know, having new people downtown will be good for business. Having the canal daylighted and having this new park feature in the downtown, that’ll be good for business, there’s just a short-term pain to try and get there.”
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