Road Work Review

All Towns across the Province - including Port Hawkesbury - are responsible for their roads, curbs, and sidewalks and the infrastructure below them. This is often a contributing reason why Town tax rates are higher than rural municipal neighbors who do not have this same responsibility (including snow clearing and water drainage/mitigation).

When I joined council back in 2012, our roads and sidewalks needed significant rehabilitation, and even though we’ve tackled this work in as fiscally responsible way as possible (by leveraging costs with funding partners and not by raising taxes), we are still faced with significant work to rehabilitate many of our roads and sidewalks. It will be important to continue to do this important work in a balanced way.

Some of the work we do on our roads and sidewalks are done by our own Public Works staff, and for larger projects, we rely on contract work.

This section will outline road, sidewalk and active transportation work for 2024, as well as work we’ve done since 2016.

In the future, our Town staff will continue to identify and prioritize areas that need our attention each year. We will continue to pursue road rehabilitation work, seek out funding partners to maximize the work we can do, and work to increase our Town’s revenues so we can be even more ambitious about fixing our streets and sidewalks.

2024 Capital Roads Work

Crandall Drive (From Hydrant by #16 to Grants Court)

Spruce Street/Pine Ridge Intersection

Sydney Road (Near Civic #113)

Queen Street (From 613 Queen to Kennedy Street)

Bernard Street (From Kennedy Street to Sydney Road)

Hiram Street (From Philpott Street to MacSween Street)

MacSween Street (From Prince Street to Hiram Street)

Pitt and Napean Street Reconstruction.

Aging Infrastructure.

Our Town has many roads, curbs and sidewalks that require patching and replacement. The strategy that was employed during the 2016-2020 year was to leverage infrastructure money (via the Clean Water/Waste Water Fund) with the Province and the Federal governments to be able to tackle two roads that needed underground infrastructure replacement, as well as asphalt, curb, gutter, and sidewalk replacement. The two streets prioritized were Pitt and Napean Streets.

The Pitt and Napean Complete Rehabilitation Project (including sewer and water infrastructure below the road) in 2016 was the first complete street rehabilitation in 17 years. We need to continue to look at these kinds of rehabilitation road project to ensure we are replacing the aging infrastructure below the asphalt.

Pitt and Napean was a $4.9 million dollar project that was 71% funding by the Clean Water Waste Water Fund. Approximately 1.6kms of complete street reconstruction was undertaken, from buried infrastructure to sidewalk, curb, gutter and asphalt. With regard to the issues with the Pitt and Napean project, and the Town is currently legally working to remedy the deficiencies that resulted from the contractor work, to best ensure the significant investment in this project will be made whole with the deficiencies corrected.

As a Town, it is important that we continue to work on roads, sidewalks and active transportation. Each year we tackle this significant work by leveraging the cost with funding partners rather than raising tax rates. In the years to come, it will be important to continue to look at creative ways to increase town revenues to tackling even more road and sidewalk work in a smart fiscally responsible way.
Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton

Active Transportation and Sidewalks

This year we have a very ambitious plan to upgrade several sidewalks in the Town of Port Hawkesbury that will help support accessibility for people who want to access services, businesses and activities.

“It is great to see the Town of Port Hawkesbury making efforts to spruce up their streets,” said Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage Minister Allan MacMaster, MLA for Inverness, on behalf John Lohr, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “These improvements will benefit people living in the core of the town and anyone who likes to get out on foot in the community.”

This year’s 2024 sidewalks project includes 1.44 kilometres of sidewalk replacement and widening, an accessible pedestrian ramp design, tactile walking surface indicators, the addition of rest areas and benches, and sign improvements. The total investment in the work is $796,454, with the Province and the Town of Port Hawkesbury each investing $398,227.

The 2024 sidewalk upgrade project is part of the Municipal Capital Growth Program, which is a one-time $102-million investment in projects all across Nova Scotia – which is a historic provincial investment in municipal infrastructure, however, the Town of Port Hawkesbury would urge the Province to continue to invest in municipal infrastructure so we can be partners in growth.

“A Town For Everyone, our Town of Port Hawkesbury’s accessibility plan, states that it is important that our community is inclusive and as barrier-free as possible so that everyone can participate with dignity and independence. One of the most prominent issues raised through community consultation collected while building the plan is the condition of our aged sidewalks and the necessary upgrades required to ensure barrier-free access. The town is very grateful to be able to work with the Province to make our community safer and more accessible for our residents and visitors.”
— Brenda Chisholm Beaton, Mayor, Town of Port Hawkesbury

Pine Ridge Drive Active Transportation Connection.

This project is separate from the 2024 Sidewalk Upgrade project outlined above. This is a project for an active transportation trail that will be approximately 400 meters of 3 meter wide Active Transportation Trail will be constructed along Pine Ridge Drive to create a pedestrian connection from the MacQuarrie Drive Intersection to the Crandall Road Intersection. This project is part of the Town’s commitment to continue to create more active transportation and sidewalk connections throughout the Town.

There are still several areas around the Town of Port Hawkesbury that needs to be connected with either sidewalks or active transportation infrastructure, and the section along Pine Ridge Drive is an important connection for people to access our Trails, our ball field, as well as other residential areas, businesses, schools, and recreation spaces. This new active transportation trail will offer a safe route for walkers, bikers, people in wheelchairs, people pushing strollers, and anyone who wants to be active in a safe way! We will continue to connect all areas in town in 2024-2028, which will include connecting this new active transportation trail to the existing sidewalk infrastructure on Pine Ridge.
- Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton