Another proposal to open Sydney's 'road to nowhere'
Fire officials want access to Whitney Pier via the still-closed road
The construction of a new fire station in Sydney, N.S., has prompted renewed efforts to get a three-year-old but never-used road opened.
The road connects the Sydney Port Access Road to Victoria Road, and the new station is being built at Victoria.
That end is open, but the other end, facing Lingan Road, is blocked where railway tracks cross it.
Important access to Whitney Pier
The fire department sees the new road as a vital second route into the Whitney Pier neighbourhood.
"If there was anything that happened on the overpass, an accident or infrastructure failure, we could have Lingan Road to access Whitney Pier, " said deputy fire chief Gilbert MacIntyre.
The tracks belong to U.S.-based Genesee and Wyoming, which will not allow traffic to cross, citing safety concerns as vehicles queue up when a train is present.
The company runs only two trains a year on those tracks.
Another rail company that ships coal on tracks across the street has also expressed concern about high traffic volumes.
Will lights work?
A solution was proposed last year that involved hiring flaggers for the times trains were on the tracks, and operating traffic lights the rest of the time. The plan was never implemented.
Nova Scotia Lands built the road, in part to facilitate development of the remediated coke-ovens site.
Executive project director Donnie Burke says the Crown corporation has come up with a new plan and submitted it to both rail companies.
"We think that can be done by timing within the lighting system there," he explained, "so by setting the times — it might be a minute and a half to dump traffic on the left turning lane, two minutes to run straight up [Sydney Port Access Road] — we'd have the ability through the lights to manage that traffic."
Burke says if Genesse and Wyoming doesn't respond in 30 days, Nova Scotia Lands will file a formal appeal with the Department of Transport, asking it to order that the road be opened.
The fire station will open in October.