Cogswell District Redevelopment Project in Halifax entering home stretch

The Cogswell District Redevelopment Project is nearing completion after almost four years.

Construction on the Cogswell District Redevelopment Project in Halifax is entering its home stretch roughly four years after work began.

On Tuesday, crews reached a milestone in the project, with the opening of the western lane on Upper Water Street. It’s all part of the master plan to redevelop an area in the centre of downtown Halifax.

Project manager Donna Davis says the focus now will be on completing the underground services and to finish up the eastern side of Upper Water Street. Once complete, it will open to four lanes of traffic.

“Between now and the end of the year we also have four parks to complete and finish,” Davis says.

There’s also work to be done on bike lanes. Davis says the $138-million undertaking isn’t just a transportation project, it’s a neighbourhood building project.

“What we’re doing is we’re taking close to 20 acres of land, prime real estate that was previously occupied by an ageing and under-utilized piece of road infrastructure and we are turning it into a neighbourhood. Upwards of 5,000 people are now going to be able to live in this neighbourhood.”

The city has five development blocks that will go on the market with the purpose of building high-density, high-rise developments in the area, which will happen when the project wraps up.

Davis says she’s now eyeing late Fall instead of the end of December for completion.

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