{"id":10132,"date":"2019-04-23T18:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=10132"},"modified":"2019-04-23T18:00:39","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T21:00:39","slug":"noise-speed-among-concerns-heard-for-wellington-connector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=10132","title":{"rendered":"Noise, speed among concerns heard for Wellington Connector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most residents at first session of open house seem positive on project <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WELLINGTON<\/strong>: The first look at the design of the Wellington Connector was greeted with much fanfare and positivity, although there were concerns expressed over the proposed five kilometre stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the concerns \nexpressed at one of the two Public Open Houses, held April 17 at the \nWellington\/Fletchers Lake Station House in Wellington, included blasting\n impact on residents wells in Oaken Hills; noise from transport trucks \nalong the road; impact on the environment; and the speed limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials\n from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (TIR) \nwere on hand and provided answers to many residents questions as well as\n heard concerns. There was also a spot to leave feedback and drop it in a\n box for TIR to consider as they look at what improvements can be made, \nif any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe detailed design process has started as we\u2019re getting ready for construction next year,\u201d said Justin Tanner, Manager, Highway Planning and Design with N.S. TIR. \u201cWe\u2019re working on details right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
MP Darrell Samson, just in from Ottawa business as the Sackville-Preston-Chezzetcook representative, stopped in to get a look at the Wellington Connector design. The federal government is supporting the project move forward with a $10 million investment, announced in March 2017. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tanner addressed questions about possible future development along the Connector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are three private land holdings surrounding the connecting road, and developers are welcomed to develop plans and apply for access off the road,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a controlled-access road. It would be limited to two or three access points that we would permit, but again they would have to come to us with a proposal and we would evaluate it for things like safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The timeline. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The timeline for the $21 million project has land \nclearing beginning in the fall of this year of Spring 2020. Construction\n would begin in the Spring of 2020; with paving and the roundabouts \nconstruction taking place between the Spring 2021 and Fall 2021. It is \nestimated the connector will open in the fall of 2021. There will also \nbe an Active Transportation trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dwayne Cross, access management engineer with TIR, said a traffic impact study was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith\n that it helped us make decisions on the two roundabouts both ends for \ngood traffic flow; reducing the amount of congestion that will be at \nthose intersections; and some general traffic diversion from the Fall \nRiver area,\u201d said Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the roundabout being put in place at Hwy 2 and Sunylea Road will be \u201cmassaged a bit\u201d more than the one in Fall River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will be some tweaking based on what we\u2019ve heard here,\u201d said Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross said the speed limit for the Wellington Connector is yet to be determined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce we get it built, we\u2019ll do a field assessment,\u201d he said. \u201cMost likely with the length of the roadway I suspect it will be 80 kilometres per hour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tanner said any talk of a road extending to Beaver Bank through Sunylea is just that, as there is nothing on the radar for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was something that was considered many, many years ago. It\u2019s not something we\u2019re looking at,\u201d said Tanner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tanner\n said they have heard concerns of the connector going in the backyards \nof those living in Oaken Hills, along Abilene Drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the \nmitigation\u2019s we\u2019re looking at is to naturally depress the roadway a \nlittle bit, below the current ground level elevations,\u201d he said. \u201cThat \nwill provide some sound mitigation and limiting the amount of trees that\n are cleared so there\u2019s that vegetative buffer. We\u2019re also going to try \nto shift the roadway as far from those properties as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An \nenvironmental assessment for the connector is underway by the province. \nAfter that, the public will have 60 days, said Tanner, to provide \nfeedback. A decision will then be rendered by Nova Scotia Environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most residents at first session of open house seem positive on project WELLINGTON: The first look at the design of the Wellington Connector was greeted with much fanfare and positivity, although there were concerns expressed over the proposed five kilometre stretch. Some of the concerns expressed at one of the two Public Open Houses, held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[212,2,473,474,475,143,442],"class_list":["post-10132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-aerotech-connector","tag-fall-river","tag-nstir","tag-roundabout","tag-traffic","tag-wellington","tag-wellington-connector"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}