NEWS RELEASE

Temporary Lane Closures on Cogswell Street Interchange

(Friday, February 1/08)-- Motorists are advised there will be some temporary lane closures beginning over the weekend on the Cogswell Street Interchange to allow maintenance and structural survey work.

Traffic on the Barrington Street Overpass will be reduced to the two centre lanes, one in-bound lane, and one out-bound lane.

In addition, traffic on the connector from Barrington Street to Brunswick Street (which is east-west, one-way traffic) will be reduced to a single lane.

The temporary lane closures are a necessary safety precaution to permit survey teams to carry out some core-testing on the structure.

Mayor Kelly said that in light of the future use of the Cogswell Interchange lands, the survey work will provide valuable information to HRM on what work may be necessary to maintain the 40-year-old interchange in the immediate future.

Mayor Kelly said the proposed future use of Cogswell lands have been included in the in the municipality's overall regional transportation plan, as well as current HRM by Design planning project for the downtown core.

"This is a valuable piece of real estate in the centre of the downtown core that many cities in the country would be envious of, and want to have for future development," he said. "As a result, we want to take our time on this planning exercise and hear from our residents about the kind of downtown area they would like to see in the future. The Cogswell lands could be the jewel in the crown."

Mayor Kelly said the existing traffic interchange, like all concrete and steel structures,
requires more maintenance as it ages and HRM wants to determine just how much it will cost to maintain it, at least on a short-term basis, until the HRM by Design process is completed and Regional Council decides on the future use of the Cogswell lands.

"We need to know now how much we should be spending to maintain an interchange that might be demolished in the next few years. We've done some testing, but we want a more detailed survey on the quality and integrity of the structure so that we have the best information on which to make a decision if we are going to be spending taxpayer dollars," the Mayor added.

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Mayor Peter Kelly
490-4010

John O'Brien
Manager, Corporate Communications
490-6531