NEWS RELEASE

Three Point Pleasant Park Forts Get Facelift

(Tuesday, September 28, 2010) - A job to do restoration and stabilization work at three Point Pleasant Park forts, recently sent out to tender, will close this week, with work scheduled to begin mid-October.
Cambridge Battery, Fort Ogilvie, and to a lesser extent, Northwest Arm Battery, are all in need of work to stabilize their existing structures, which are deteriorating under the stresses of their natural environment.

The work, in the case of Cambridge Battery, will involve the “entombment” of two of the walls. Entombment, as it’s referred to, is the process of burying or enclosing a structure - in this case two walls, as a way to preserve deteriorating and unstable historical structures.

“This really is a way to protect some of the precious history that exists in a fort like Cambridge Battery. To make sure that this very integral part of the history and the make-up of the park isn’t lost to future generations,” says Peter Bigelow, HRM’s Manager of Real Property Planning, Infrastructure & Asset Management.

This is not the first entombment in the park - the last happened in the 1960s, at both the Cambridge Battery and Fort Ogilvie.

Other work being done to the three forts includes re-pointing walls, metal, stone and concrete work as well as general landscaping.

The work is jointly funded by all three levels of government: HRM, the Province of Nova Scotia, and the Federal Government, through the Stimulus Program. The fortifications themselves are the actual property of the Federal Government. Future plans are being examined for stabilization and presentation of the Point Pleasant Battery, located on the Park’s shoreline.

Public access to the forts will be limited both during the work period - scheduled to last until mid-December - and into the spring in some areas. For more information on the Fortifications Stabilization Project, visit the Park’s website at: www.pointpleasantpark.ca

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Contact:
Peter Bigelow, HRM Manager of Real Property Planning,
Infrastructure & Asset Management
490-6047