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Posted Dec 3, 2009, 8:30 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: B3K Halifax, NS
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Bridge safety barrier nearly complete
Legal issue spurred construction
By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE Staff Reporter
Thu. Dec 3 - 4:46 AM
Years ago, officials running metro’s two harbour bridges were advised against extending the railing on the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge to help prevent suicides and vandals tossing debris.
The engineering opinion of the day was the span should not accept additional weight.
But last year a new opinion said the original weight-related concern was not an issue, and now the safety-barrier extension project on the Macdonald bridge is nearly done, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
Alison MacDonald said the $1.2-million job should be finished by the end of the month, weather permitting. Work began in mid-August.
It started after an in-depth analysis of bridge operations was done, she said, and a clearer engineering opinion emerged with the help of computer modelling unavailable in the past.
"And so when we had that definitive answer, we put it in the budget to add the barriers," said Ms. MacDonald, of Halifax Harbour Bridges, a provincial Crown corporation.
Prior to the project’s start in the summer, a high safety fence had been fitted on the bridge over property belonging to the Defence Department.
Ms. MacDonald said that installation was to satisfy terms of a legal settlement because Defence Department property was getting dinged by objects propelled from the bridge, including traffic cones and a television set.
"Our goal was just to get the barriers up and not make a big deal out of it," she told The Chronicle Herald.
Halifax Harbour Bridges (formerly the Halifax-Dartmouth Bridge Commission) had been criticized in the past by mental health advocates for its lack of a higher barrier on the Macdonald bridge. The new fence, which is on the pedestrian and bicycle lane sides, curls inward at the top and toward bridge users.
Ms. MacDonald said major construction on the span is still a few years away. In 2015, the bridge is to undergo a redecking at a cost of about $130 million.
In 2005, a small crowd gathered on the Dartmouth side of the Macdonald bridge to mark the site’s 50th anniversary.
The bridge was built in 1955, a time when Louis St-Laurent was Canada’s prime minister, the nation’s young veterans were marking the 10th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the late Martin Luther King Jr. led his first major civil rights protest in the United States.
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A new face on Brenton Street after businesses move, close
Halifax News Net
By Lindsay Jones – The Weekly News
The face of Brenton Street is changing. While several businesses have either moved out or closed down on the Spring Garden Road side street recently, a new store has moved in.
Duly Noted Stationery, which has established itself printing wedding invitations, corporate event menus, business cards and restaurant menus, on Quinpool Road, has opened a second location in the former Frog Hollow Books’ space on Brenton Street. The plan is to close the Quinpool Road location in February after the busy Christmas season.
“(Quinpool Road) is a great spot for retail, almost like a salmon spring for small businesses — the rent is low and there’s lots of traffic — but of course, Spring Garden Road is the premier shopping area of the peninsula and it made sense for us to go there now that we’re a more mature business,” said Duly Noted co-owner Mike Smith. “We really enjoyed Quinpool, but we needed more space and a better layout. It just wasn’t the right kind of space for the business we want to do.”
The new brighter, bigger store has a separate room serving as a consultation area.
Duly Noted is also launching an online store with the goal to expand its sales of high-end office products across the country.
Smith’s wife and business partner Nicole Venema said the Quinpool store, which is also an outlet for Ticketpro sales, was just too crowded.
Since the lease was up, moving downtown was the logical thing to do, she says.
“I think that because our business is a destination, it doesn’t matter if we’re on a main strip,” Venema said.
Brenton Street has also seen its share of businesses move out over the last several months. Totally Yours salon has relocated to Fenwick Street in south-end Halifax. Dio Mio Gelato International Cafe, an ice cream institution, has gone out of business.
Bernie Smith, the manager of the Spring Garden Area Business Association, says that so far, he hasn’t heard of anyone with plans to move into the empty store fronts with for lease signs along Brenton Street, but he’s hopeful the tide will turn.
“There’s an emphasis on continued invigoration on the side streets,” Smith said. “They’re filling out all the time, and I’m sure the Trillium (development on South Park Street) will add to the pedestrian traffic on Brenton Street.”
Smith said the former Dio Mio space would be ideal for a restaurant.
“It just has to be marketed,” he said.
The former Totally Yours space would also make a nice restaurant or boutique, he adds.
“People might think we have enough boutiques, but people like strolling around and looking at the fashions, and another one would fit in just fine.”
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