DETAILING COSTS

Dillon Consulting awarded municipal tender to study downtown Sydney redesign

Dillon Consulting Ltd. awarded municipal tender to study redesign of Charlotte Street.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality has awarded a tender for the Charlotte Street engineering redesign study to Dillon Consulting Ltd. of Sydney.

The contract, which is worth $315,500, was awarded on Aug. 31.

But the study itself that will detail the actual cost of revamping the commercial strip will cost approximately $100,000 of the total amount of $315,500, said Rick McCready, a CBRM planner who serves as the project manager on the steering committee.

“The amount of work we’re committing is $100,000” in this fiscal year, he said.

If the construction phase of the project were to go ahead following approval by municipal council, the remainder of the money would be spent on Dillon Consulting supervising the project.

“We’re not actually going to be starting construction in this fiscal year and probably not actually even in the next fiscal year. It’ll likely be in 2020,” McCready added.

Dillon has started with survey work on Charlotte Street. It’s expected business and property owners will provide input into the changes during meetings to be held sometime this fall, he said.

The report by Dillon is expected to be completed by March.

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is splitting the cost of the $100,000 engineering study 50-50 with the municipality.

Dartmouth-based design firm Ekistics + Design released a report in May 2017 with conceptual images of what the downtown streets could look like with power lines buried and widened sidewalks. Lamps, benches, signage and trees would also be added to the streetscape.

The street is due to have a new water line installed and as a result will be dug up and reconstructed in the next few years providing an opportunity for a complete facelift if funding from the three levels of government can be secured.

Last year, the CBRM endorsed in principal the estimated $10.5-million plan from Ekistics to revamp downtown Sydney, which would include $7.5 million to redesign Charlotte Street from Dorchester to Townsend streets.

The $10.5-million figure does not include the cost of any required land acquisitions.

CONTRIBUTED Shown above is an artist’s rendering of what Charlotte Street where it meets Wentworth Street would look like if a plan to revitalize downtown Sydney goes through. Dillon Consulting Ltd. has been awarded a tender for the detailed engineering work required to move ahead with the project.