Many people in Bedford want a better route to work, but feel bad for the Halifax homeowners who are going to pay for it.
The city and province planned two meetings this week to present the plans for a road widening project for Bayers Road and the Highway 102 corridor from Windsor Street to Fall River.
The first meeting on Wednesday night left concerned residents frustrated at a lack of answers.
“They gave a good technical presentation but they didn’t answer a lot of questions that the people had, like when this was going to happen,” said Matt Jobb who lives on Bayers Road.
Jobb is a civil engineer and he found the presentation too technical without answering how the project will directly affect his front yard.
Construction is expected to take place in stages over 30 years, but Jobb said that’s no comfort.
“That doesn’t help us because no one’s going to be interested in buying a house if they know this is coming.” He added a few residents of Chebucto Road attended the meeting and said they sympathized with Bayers Road residents.
The second meeting in Bedford on Thursday night was expected to go a little smoother. Bedford Coun. Tim Outhit said the project is of great interest to commuters there.
“It’s positive in the sense that we’re happy to get some of the truck traffic from Burnside and local traffic off the Dartmouth Road and off the Bedford Highway,” he said.
“But I think there are going to be some people in Bedford who have some concerns about the folks on Bayers Road.” Like the Bayers Road residents, Outhit said city councilors are also looking for some answers before the issue comes to a vote.
“I’m hopeful we’ll be able to reach some solution with reversing lanes, etc. so this project would be less severe,” he said.
“This is no slam dunk, nothing has been decided yet.”
