Downtown Halifax’s stoic concrete eyesore will hang around a little longer. The HRM’s request for proposals to redevelop the Cogswell Interchange has been pushed back – again. The long-awaited RFP would be the first major step toward erasing the aesthetic damage done by the local government in the late 1960s.
Last April, HRM supervisor for heritage and design Andy Fillmore told the Ecology Action Centre that the RFP was
95 percent finished and would be issued soon. In August, he told CBC News it would be done in September. But city staff haven’t done much work on it since April; on Friday Fillmore said it’s currently about 95 to 99 percent finished. He said he expects the RFP to be made public in November.
Fillmore said the RFP has been delayed because a majority of council doesn’t consider the Cogswell Interchange a priority, so city staff have been working hard on the higher-priority five-year review of HRM by Design instead.
Councillor Dawn Sloane said her constituents deemed the interchange their number one priority in 2000, and have since continued to throw their weight behind its demise.
But Fillmore said the city is waiting for one of three triggers before they would consider tearing down the structure:
- the maintenance costs outweigh the cost of demolition
- a major structural problem makes it unsafe or unusable
- the city receives a major financial boost from the public or private sector specifically targeted toward this project
Now it appears we’re on the cusp of two of these triggers. In August, HRM spent $295,000 to “rehabilitate” the structure. That’s why the bridge roadway is currently under construction.
“Like any aging infrastructure, it’s showing signs of deterioration, and over time repairing that deterioration will get more expensive,” Fillmore said.
And last Wednesday, Halifax happened upon a $25 billion warship-building contract.
“The time is now,” Sloane said in an email. “We are about to have an influx of citizens with the shipyard contract. To combat sprawl, we need to have this interchange torn down, and mixed use buildings and public green space developed. Think of it as an opportunity to have the population on the peninsula increase.”
Fillmore said the city’s goal is to increase population density in the area, possibly by building high-rises.
Once the RFP deadline has expired, HRM will hire a team to decide on a new design for the land where the Cogswell Interchange currently sits, and the surrounding waterfront area. The team will have about 10 months to create a masterplan, and to consult the public. Fillmore said the public consultation for the Cogswell Interchange would use the “World Café” method popularized in Halifax by the Art of Hosting community.
Monday, reporter Hilary Beaumont looks back at the history and heritage of the Cogswell Interchange.
UPDATE
News 95.7 says a decision is coming before the end of November.
