Port of Halifax, Windsor St Exchange upgrades

[Haliguy]

Feds invest $47.5 million in Port of Halifax, Windsor Street Exchange upgrades


Andrea Gunn (agunn@herald.ca)

Published: 2 hours ago


Halifax Port Authority CEO Karen Oldfield stands at the Ceres container pier in Halifax in this 2012 photo. Oldfield calls $47.5 million in government upgrades a game changer. - Peter Parsons



A federal investment of $47.5 million in the Port of Halifax is a game changer, says the authority’s president and CEO Karen Oldfield, and will improve the lives of both Haligonians and port users.

At a media event in Halifax on Sunday, Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Halifax MP Andy Fillmore announced funding via the $2 billion National Trade Corridors Fund for two different but related projects to increase the capacity of the Port of Halifax and help improve the flow of Canadian goods to international markets.

The federal portion will cover about half of the roughly $100-million initiative with the rest of the funds coming from the Nova Scotia government, Halifax Regional Municipality, the Halifax Port Authority and CN Rail.

According to a federal press release, the first project will increase the port’s storage capacity by connecting the South End Container Terminal to the Fairview Cove Container Terminal by rail. The upgrades will include adding rail tracks within its existing footprint and the acquisition of four new rail-mounted cranes to load and unload containers more efficiently.




The second project will upgrade the Windsor Street Exchange, the main access road to the Port of Halifax. As part of this, the Port will realign the Bedford Highway, upgrade Lady Hammond Road and install new traffic signals to improve traffic flow, reduce congestion, and improve safety, reliability, and efficiency of freight movement.

“What does it really mean? It means much better use of existing infrastructure. ... Container trucks will be picking up and dropping off boxes at another point closer to the Fairview Cove terminal and those container trucks that would otherwise be coming to the (Halterm terminal) in the South End ... that traffic will come in by rail,” Oldfield said.

“It’s a wonderful thing, because it means that the container-related truck traffic will be out of the downtown streets. They won’t be idling, they won’t be giving off greenhouse gasses, they won’t be presenting some of the challenges for pedestrians and bikers and everybody else that lives downtown.”

For container truck drivers, she said it will mean not having to contend with downtown traffic and navigating narrow city streets.

“I think we should be very excited ... this is transformational for the city,” Oldfield said.

Speaking with SaltWire Network, Garneau said Atlantic Canada is a gateway to many key overseas destinations for Canadian goods.

“Our ports are key to the economic vitality of the country and if we don’t get our goods to our customers in other countries then they will quickly turn towards other sources to meet their needs and we will lose business,” he said.

“Having modern, efficient and reliable ports is absolutely critical, and on the East Coast, Halifax is a very important port for that.”

A spokesperson from the Department of Transportation said planning and design for the projects will start this summer with the actual construction expected to kick off in the spring of 2020. The projects are expected to create an estimated 880 jobs during the three to four years they will take to complete.

[FuzzyWuz]

Originally Posted by Haliguy

According to a federal press release, the first project will increase the port’s storage capacity by connecting the South End Container Terminal to the Fairview Cove Container Terminal by rail.

Clarification? They're already connected.

[Haliguy]

Originally Posted by FuzzyWuz

Clarification? They're already connected.

Yeah that confused me too. I think it means adding another track that will be didicated to connecting the two terminals but not sure.

[atbw]

Originally Posted by Haliguy

Yeah that confused me too. I think it means adding another track that will be didicated to connecting the two terminals but not sure.

My understanding is it's going to be a rail shuttle, so all truck traffic will be going to Ceres, with only reefers that are time-sensitive going by truck directly to Halterm. Will be interesting to see how this impacts the feasibility of commuter rail.

[terrynorthend]

Originally Posted by atbw

My understanding is it's going to be a rail shuttle, so all truck traffic will be going to Ceres, with only reefers that are time-sensitive going by truck directly to Halterm. Will be interesting to see how this impacts the feasibility of commuter rail.

I wonder if Ceres currently has the marshaling capacity for all the extra traffic or will they need to expand the yards...

[teddifax]

There is a lot of room to expand as they have been infilling towards the bridge in recent years.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by atbw

My understanding is it's going to be a rail shuttle, so all truck traffic will be going to Ceres, with only reefers that are time-sensitive going by truck directly to Halterm. Will be interesting to see how this impacts the feasibility of commuter rail.

If it does mean adding an extra track in the rail cut between Halterm and Ceres, this will only help the cause of commuter rail.

[someone123]

An aspect of this that hasn't gotten as much attention is that it fits in with the city's BRT or bus lane plans. A few of the routes go through the Windsor Street exchange.

Halifax's transportation infrastructure is pretty old now. It is basically a 70's system that has been tweaked over and over. You might make things move 30% better with a reversing lane or better signals but you won't get 4x improvements. The city needs some substantially new infrastructure, and transit service beyond basic buses.

Another angle is that the city will eventually need to establish some more concrete higher capacity transit corridors to enable better land use planning. Right now there's just a vague sense of allowing higher density closer to the central parts of the peninsula, and preserving single family dwelling areas. In cities with higher order transit like subways, the stations drive real estate development. In Halifax there is uncertainty over where bus corridors will go or if there will even be commuter rail or something else.

[Keith P.]

According to Mason there are no design plans, no actual drawings, nothing that would actually be used for things like, y'know, a budget. So right now, this is just smoke and mirrors, another example of the federal Libs announcing some pre-election plums in a desperate attempt to win another term in office. Then of course if that happens they still can suddenly announce some unexpected downturn in the financial position and defer or cancel the whole thing. And if another party wins power the entire thing will likely be scrapped due to the unexpectedly bad financial position they discover, as all new govts invariably do.

These changes are long, long overdue and I hope something close to what is announced actually goes ahead - though they can leave out the bike lanes if they want to save money. But I cannot help be struck by the cynical vote-buying ploy. I suspect it will not help Andy Fillmore's chances much, especially since just a few months back he was braying about the need to get rid of the container pier entirely. And you know that Mason and others will be taking credit for this too when the municipal elections come along next year. Hopefully voters will have been paying attention to the ongoing debacles that are HRM politics and throw the bums out.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

According to Mason there are no design plans, no actual drawings, nothing that would actually be used for things like, y'know, a budget. So right now, this is just smoke and mirrors, another example of the federal Libs announcing some pre-election plums in a desperate attempt to win another term in office. Then of course if that happens they still can suddenly announce some unexpected downturn in the financial position and defer or cancel the whole thing. And if another party wins power the entire thing will likely be scrapped due to the unexpectedly bad financial position they discover, as all new govts invariably do.

These changes are long, long overdue and I hope something close to what is announced actually goes ahead - though they can leave out the bike lanes if they want to save money. But I cannot help be struck by the cynical vote-buying ploy. I suspect it will not help Andy Fillmore's chances much, especially since just a few months back he was braying about the need to get rid of the container pier entirely. And you know that Mason and others will be taking credit for this too when the municipal elections come along next year. Hopefully voters will have been paying attention to the ongoing debacles that are HRM politics and throw the bums out.

Deja Vu... didn't I just read this in General Updates and News?

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Deja Vu... didn't I just read this in General Updates and News?

I improved it.

[OldDartmouthMark]

[atbw]

Originally Posted by someone123

An aspect of this that hasn't gotten as much attention is that it fits in with the city's BRT or bus lane plans. A few of the routes go through the Windsor Street exchange.

Halifax's transportation infrastructure is pretty old now. It is basically a 70's system that has been tweaked over and over. You might make things move 30% better with a reversing lane or better signals but you won't get 4x improvements. The city needs some substantially new infrastructure, and transit service beyond basic buses.

In a video Waye posted he notes transit is going to be getting more priority through the next iteration of the interchange. Would be huge at rush hours - even with a new design, there's still going to be traffic. Bypassing that in a dedicated bus lane would be huge. I'm excited to see this, but I have no idea what the revamped exchange would look like. It's a tangle of roads, plus grade-separated rail, to deal with.

[Keith P.]

HRM has released two design options for a redesigned Windsor St Exchange. They created a video to show them which is pretty crude and somewhat confusing, but it is at least a first look:

• Video Link


Option A with the twin roundabouts would be a disaster in that extremely heavy-volume intersection, but option B seems little better with very convoluted intersections and traffic flow. Why they are limiting themselves to a single overpass is a mystery, since most of the issues could be resolved by a second one, or a combination of an overpass and an underpass.

[Half-Axed]

I like elements of the roundabout option based on what I typically use it for. I might be missing some stuff that people who commute through it both directions deal with.

It fixes one specific problem that the other option doesn't - cars inbound from the Bedford Highway and wanting to keep right for Windsor or Kempt currently have to swap places with cars coming off the Joseph Howe Drive ramp who want to go to the centre for Lady Hammond or keep left for Barrington or the bridge. This creates quite a backup in heavy or even moderate traffic despite the two right lanes approaching Kempt and Windsor being practically empty past the Joe Howe ramp.

Design A will allow people inbound on the Bedford Highway to either merge right and turn right to Windsor, or just use the roundabout to go to Kempt, Lady Hammond, to Barrington or the bridge. Similarly people coming off Joseph Howe will be able to do the same things, without having to swap lanes with people on their left to nearly such a degree (I think). People heading from Barrington or the bridge to Bedford Highway outbound will simply sail through. The design also deals nicely with going from Windsor St. to the Bedford Highway outbound (which in theory isn't that bad now, except that most people don't use the current configuration properly.)

That said I have some general concerns due to how bad people are at zipper merging and the fact that many people are soooo timid about entering roundabouts without coming to a full stop. I also fail to see any need for the second roundabout - it might make sense if Bayne St were being reconnected to the Mackay as in Design B, but if that's not happening, why bother? Maybe I'm missing something.

Design B doesn't address the lane swapping issues (or stop signs). Nor does it address the issue where people coming down Windsor to go to the Bedford Highway line up in one lane instead of using both turning lanes as intended and zipper merging once they get through the intersection. Mind you that's just Halifax drivers thinking they are being polite by queuing single file and not realizing they are actually causing problems behind them and not getting through lights as quickly as they could. It's not really a design problem, but I guess you have to design for how people will really use it and not for how they are supposed to.

[MolteN]

It seems clear to me that the dual roundabout option under the Bedford highway overpass will be better for traffic flow, but I really feel that HRM should build marked crosswalks before the entries to the roundabout, not right on the curve where you're expected to yield like in the commons area, Larry Uteck and the Armdale roundabout. If they either redirect the pedestrian traffic further away from the ramps or build pedways the go over the intersection completely for the sake of pedestrian and cyclist safety and traffic flow.

Now just to release a tender to make the dreaded Windsor Chebucto Road / Cunard & Windsor street intersection a roundabout too.

[Keith P.]

I cannot see how roundabouts will be anything but at a standstill during rush hour traffic here.

[Half-Axed]

You’re totally right about the crosswalks. They need to be a safe distance from any exits from the roundabout too. Drivers tend to be focussed on the circle and not looking for pedestrians while still in it. I’m surprised no one has been hit on Larry Uteck yet where there’s a really badly placed crosswalk that you don’t really see until the last second.

Originally Posted by MolteN

It seems clear to me that the dual roundabout option under the Bedford highway overpass will be better for traffic flow, but I really feel that HRM should build marked crosswalks before the entries to the roundabout, not right on the curve where you're expected to yield like in the commons area, Larry Uteck and the Armdale roundabout. If they either redirect the pedestrian traffic further away from the ramps or build pedways the go over the intersection completely for the sake of pedestrian and cyclist safety and traffic flow.

Now just to release a tender to make the dreaded Windsor Chebucto Road / Cunard & Windsor street intersection a roundabout too.

[Half-Axed]

Yeah it’s a tough call. I wrote my impressions as I tried to visualize the paths I would take through it and I think it would work for me…but I’m very comfortable entering and exiting roundabouts. And like I said I find Haligonians tend to be very timid about merging in moving traffic without coming to a near stop first. I fear you’re probably right and it’ll be just as if there were still stop signs.

Other roundabouts in the city seem to work fairly well most times when I use them. I’ve never used the Armdale one at rush hour though - is it any better now than years ago?

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I cannot see how roundabouts will be anything but at a standstill during rush hour traffic here.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Half-Axed

You’re totally right about the crosswalks. They need to be a safe distance from any exits from the roundabout too. Drivers tend to be focussed on the circle and not looking for pedestrians while still in it. I’m surprised no one has been hit on Larry Uteck yet where there’s a really badly placed crosswalk that you don’t really see until the last second.

Totally agree. There's a lot to look out for when the roundabouts are busy and if pedestrians are infrequent in those crosswalks drivers will probably get used to not looking out for them when they are trying to find a gap to fit into during busy times. I have found that since the Uteck ones were put in that drivers are traversing them faster and faster as they become more comfortable with them.