Businesses continue to take a hit amid construction on Halifax’s Dutch Village Road

The Dutch Village Road project continues to cause traffic headaches in Halifax.

The $10 million Dutch Village Road project in Halifax has been ongoing since April and businesses continue to stress about its impact on their bottom line.

Ab Asaff operates Vantage Business Centre, which provides office spaces to eight different companies. Currently, he is struggling to both keep and find tenants in his Dutch Village Road units.

“I can’t rent an office as long as the road is torn up out there, nobody is going to come here and rent an office. So it’s very bad for my business,” says Asaff.

Zuber Ruwale feels the same way. He has owned Amaan Tours, a travel agency on Dutch Village Road, for the past year.

“The footfall of our customers has been reduced by 90 per cent, so it’s a very big loss for us,” says Ruwale.

The west side of the street is mostly complete now, with a few sidewalk sections and curbs to finish. Then there’s paving on the east side to do and adding a bike lane. It is necessary project, according to the city of Halifax.

“To improve it, to allow people to better access the area, to make it more walkable, cyclable and enable more transit access. So it’s a bit of short term pain for long term gain,” says Jake Fulton, with the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Prior to construction, Dutch Village Road saw about 14,000 cars a day, plus bus and foot traffic. It is currently operating as a one lane road, so locals are having to find alternative routes.

“All that traffic has to find another route. I know people have been using Main Avenue more, Joe Howe is definitely busier, people are using the 102 more, but it all puts more pressure on the areas that were already bottlenecked,” says Kathryn Morse, councillor for the area.

That is adding frustration for many businesses, specifically Flenjor Foods, who rely on deliveries to run their food production and grocery services.

“It’s a little frustrating for our customers, because we know the back roads, but we can’t say the same for someone coming to deliver or pick up consignments and that sort of thing, its very frustrating for them. And with Joseph Howe, which is pretty much a parking lot all day long since the construction started on Dutch Village Road,” says Olakanle Fakiyesi, Flenjor Foods’ coowner.

Morse says it’s gotten a bit better for businesses since construction moved to the east side of the street.

“The curbs and sidewalks are pretty well done on both sides with a few exceptions, and a few patches are missing. We are getting close to completion,” she says.

Morse adds she hears the worries from businesses and she has put forward a motion to council that has been approved. It’s a letter to the provincial government to request the ability to help businesses impacted by longer term construction projects.

“We don’t now have the legal framework to provide compensation to for-profit businesses from our residential tax base, so we approved a letter to the province to do that,” she says.

Two-way traffic is scheduled to resume in December, with the final landscaping touches in the spring.

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