The Halifax Urban Greenway project is preparing for its next phase by providing residents with information and collecting feedback on where they should focus their efforts next.
The city held a pair of information sessions on Thursday that brought several dozen people out to learn about the proposed plans.
The trail is a north-south connector designed for active transportation like walking, cycling and more. In the years to come, the project will link Point Pleasant Park to the Chain of Lakes trail located at Joseph Howe Drive and Bayers Road.
“This next phase of the Halifax Urban Greenway would serve as an active transportation spine through the west end of the city,” explained Siobhan Witherbee, an Active Transportation Planner for HRM. “It can be used for active transportation to draw people into the peninsula and connect into our on road bicycle network in the downtown.”
For two hours in the afternoon and two in the evening, Witherbee and other staff members answered questions and identified the potential next steps for the project in an effort to gauge public interest and need.
“We’re trying to feel out the priority,” she explained. “Whether or not they’d like the section from Beaufort Avenue to Point Pleasant Park extended first or whether they’d like to see it extended farther to the north so going up to Jubilee and beyond.”
Once they’ve gathered enough feedback and select the next area to extend, cost estimates will be drawn up as part of the capital budget plan.
“Based on the public feedback, we’ll select a preferred design,” she said.
City Coun. Waye Mason indicated that the project, already several years in, has a long way to go before it’s complete. But says says the benefits will be massive, as the trail will connect much more than just the downtown sector.
“When it’s done some day it should connect all the way to Bayers Road, that would then connect to the Chain of Lakes Trail,” he explained. “Then you’d be able to theoretically bike on the rum runners trail all the way to Lunenburg, so ultimately when it’s done, it’s a really exciting connection.”
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