HRM looks to improve access to Africville
Getting to Africville from the rest of the Halifax Peninsula is, without a doubt, a challenge.
As Megan Backos, an active transportation planner with Halifax Regional Municipality, explains, there is currently no formally designated way for someone walking, cycling or rolling to access the national historic site in a “legal way.”
Right now, Backos said people are either forced to travel there by going down portions of Barrington Street and Africville Road “where there's no sidewalk and … there can be a high volume of traffic, high speed vehicles or heavy trucks going down that street.”
Others get there by going down informal trails that come off the end of Novalea Drive through the Africville Lookoff Park, “but that forces them to go down some steep trails and steep grades to cross over a CN Railway, where there's not an official pedestrian crossing,” she added.
“So it's really currently not very comfortable and not very safe,” said Backos.
To make access to the site safer for everyone, HRM is looking to determine the most feasible connections between Africville — a historic seaside community that was razed in the name of urban renewal in the 1960s — and the rest of the peninsula through a new project.
“We’re trying to hopefully mirror how people are currently getting to the site, just in a safer, more comfortable way,” said Backos.
As part of the functional planning stage of the Africville Active Transportation Project, Backos said HRM staff aim to identify preliminary routes for walking and cycling connections and determine preferred routes for people of all ages and abilities.
Next, staff will put together functional design drawings to present to Halifax regional council for approval.
If approved, more detailed design work will be done in a “more engineering heavy stage” to prepare for the eventual construction of the connection, projected for 2024-2025, according to Backos.
POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS IDENTIFIED
There are three preliminary connections being considered.
One of them is extending the sidewalk or a multi-use pathway to the Africville Museum from Barrington Street where it now ends at Glebe Street, as well as improving connectivity between Glebe Street and Niobe Gate Bridge with a three- to four-metre multi-use pathway.
Another option is improving connection to the museum from the Africville Lookoff Park and Novalea Drive using a three- to four-metre wide multi-use pathway.
The third possible connection would be made by connecting Africville Lookoff Park with the former rail corridor that begins on Kempt Road and runs parallel to Memorial Drive, until it ends at Mackay Bridge ramps. This would be a multi-use pathway that would then connect down to the Africville Museum.
Each of the options would improve pedestrian connectivity to existing transit services.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
The project comes as a result of a petition — that garnered more than 600 signatures — which a staff member from the Africville Museum took to Halifax regional council back in 2016, calling on the municipality to make Africville more accessible through sidewalks and public transit.
HRM is planning to begin public engagement on the project in the next couple of months, which will likely have to be virtual due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Backos noted.
There will be specific engagement with former Africville residents, descendants and community associations associated with the community, as well as a “greater community engagement process,” which will seek input from other residents in the vicinity of the national historic site
This community engagement will be done alongside engagement on the Windsor Street Exchange Redevelopment Project, to ensure that the community is not “over engaged on projects that are right next to each other,” said Backos.
Anyone interested in staying up to date on when public engagement starts for the project can visit shapeyourcityhalifax.ca/africville-active-transportation and sign up to receive email updates.
“We really want to get people’s input on this and we want to take the time to be able to do it right and ensure the decisions we’re making are reflective of the community’s input,” said Backos.
“Right now, you can’t access it, but (Africville is) a significant piece of Canadian history. It really should be accessible for everyone, for those former residents and descendants of the Africville community to be able to visit and connect and spend time there, but it’s also this great tourism asset and education asset that I think creating this connection will be extremely beneficial.”