Still on the road to nowhere
Status of Sydney road that has sat idle for almost five years will be reviewed
It’s a street with no name but it may very well have the smoothest road surface in a municipality where potholes are the norm and not the exception.
It’s the so-called “road to nowhere.”
And, while it has sat unused for the better part of five years, the province is now looking into the roadway that was built to connect Sydney’s Ashby area with Whitney Pier and the Sydney Ports Access Road.
Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal spokesperson Marla MacDonald confirmed on Thursday that the department “has hired a consultant with expertise in rail grade crossing safety assessments.”
“They will be reviewing the current intersection including the provincial and federal rail lines — the consultant will engage all stakeholders to ensure all concerns are addressed,” MacDonald wrote in an email message to the Cape Breton Post.
The road was constructed in 2013 as part of the 10-year, $400-million remediation project of the former Sydney tar ponds and associated sites. The street runs across the location of the former coke ovens as an alternate route for motorists. Prior to the extension of Ferry Street and the construction of the SPAR Road, the only way to access Whitney Pier from the rest of Sydney was by the Victoria Road overpass.
The road runs north from Inverness Street, which connects to Victoria Road, to the intersection of Lingan and SPAR roads, where it is blocked by temporary concrete barriers. And, it’s the latter location where the trouble lies as there are two sets of railway tracks. One set of tracks runs parallel to the SPAR Road and leads to the Sydney coal piers, while the other veers across SPAR Road and continues under the overpass and runs toward Prince Street, theoretically connecting with the main line of the now inoperative Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway that is owned by Genesee and Wyoming Inc.
However, the American-owned railway company has not granted approval for a road crossing over its rail line, allegedly citing safety concerns over the busy nature of the intersection, despite the fact that it has not carried any train traffic since 2015.
Proponents of the new route argue that it will provide quicker and safer access for firefighting equipment responding to calls from the new Sydney Fire Station No. 2 that is located on Victoria Road, not far from the Inverness Street intersection.
It has also been suggested that opening the road could lead to the development of some of the 150 acres of prime land that sit where the former coke ovens once belched its smoky effluents.