N.S. to ignore plebiscite, keep Port Hawkesbury's main street at three lanes

Adam Cooke · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 02, 2025 7:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Despite a caller ballot suggesting astir Port Hawkesbury residents privation their main thoroughfare to revert to 4 lanes, the municipality and state are a measurement person to making a three-lane aviator task a imperishable fixture connected Reeves Street. 

Public Works officials appearing astatine Tuesday night's municipality assembly meeting announced they expect to decorativeness enactment connected a imperishable three-lane alignment for Reeves Street by 2027, pending support from the provincial government.

Upgrades would see reducing the width of the provincially owned thoroughfare and overhauling postulation lights astatine 2 intersections that person seen extended postulation tie-ups implicit the past year. 

The determination flies successful the look of a plebiscite connected Reeves Street past autumn arsenic portion of the town's municipal elections. Some 60 per cent of the 1,691 participating voters declared that they preferred the erstwhile four-lane alignment, which was scrapped successful 2019.

Public Works feels large postulation issues resolved 

When the state and municipality assembly introduced the Destination Reeves Street aviator task six years ago, a one-kilometre agelong of the main thoroughfare was reduced from 4 lanes to three, with strategical turning lanes astatine the entranceway and exit points to section businesses, buying plazas and different nationalist gathering spaces. 

The determination was designed successful portion to dilatory postulation down to the velocity bounds of 50 kilometres per hour, and information collected by Public Works through engineering steadfast CBCL suggests that has occurred. The mean velocity from 2019 to 2025 was 54 kilometres per hour, spiking to 63.9 km/h between 4 and 5 a.m.

However, successful 2024, municipality residents and immoderate municipal councillors criticized the three-lane strategy for prolonged postulation slowdowns connected weekdays during the noon-hour and late-afternoon periods. 

During this week's presumption to council, Public Works officials Dwayne Cross and Mark Brace confirmed that issues with postulation lights astatine 2 intersections slowed motorists down, and pledged to regenerate these lights arsenic portion of the planned Reeves Street upgrade. 

Cross, the manager of road readying and design, said his section was aware of the Reeves Street plebiscite.

"Certainly, it was tied into the governmental quality of an election, whereas we're science-driven — we're driven by data," Cross said after the presentation. 

Brace said the section has had feedback from immoderate residents "and we're trying to code it done these proposals."

Mayor, assembly enthusiastic astir street's future

Following the presentation, councillors voted unanimously to inquire unit to draught a missive to the provincial section and promote it to concern the upgrade. 

"The full task from commencement to decorativeness was a existent illustration of a grassroots inaugural to alteration Reeves Street for information for each the users, and for concern facades and streetscapes and progressive transportation," said Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton. 

Deputy Mayor Iaian Langley, 1 of 3 caller councillors elected past fall, said helium would similar to spot further enactment taken regarding the entranceway to a residential country located extracurricular of the Destination Reeves Street sector. However, Langley besides feels the task deserves council's enactment successful its existent form. 

"The information … bears retired that the existent configuration is safe," helium said. "And erstwhile it's rebuilt, it'll beryllium adjacent safer."