Plans for trail extension take shape

For four years, plans have been in the works to extend the Dartmouth Harbourfront Trail, closing the three-kilometre gap between its terminus and the start of the Shearwater Flyer Trail. Those plans are now shaping up, as Pleasant-Woodside residents learned at an April community engagement session — where they also had a chance to share enthusiasm and air concerns about the project.

The proposed multi-use pathway is slated to run alongside Pleasant Street, allowing cyclists and pedestrians easier, safer travel through the area. The city began studying the project in 2021 and held its first community engagement session in 2023. The second and most recent session revealed a plan for a three-metre wide multi-use pathway, as outlined on the Shape Your City Halifax website.

David MacIsaac, HRM project manager for the trail planning, expanded that description, telling the Post that the pathway would be a sidewalk and a bi-directional bikeway from Everett Street north to the Woodside Ferry Terminal. A multi-use pathway would be installed from south of Everett Street to Hines Road. The trail offers an easy connection to Lawrencetown Beach and would create another link in the Trans-Canada Trail.

If the city selects this plan, “we’ll have a fair amount of green space,” MacIsaac said. “That will be an opportunity to plant trees and landscape it.”

The project is estimated to cost $10 million, with funding coming from federal, provincial, and municipal levels. Construction will be timed to coincide with a large-scale rehabilitation of Pleasant Street, which includes repaving the road and replacing the curb.

The proposal requires the removal of one of the southbound lanes on Pleasant Street, as well as the acquisition of a small plot of land (about the size of a few parking spots) at the Woodside Ferry Terminal. MacIsaac said this plan requires “almost no property acquisition,”meaning that relatively little land will have to be purchased to make space for the trail.

Most participants at April’s engagement session shared enthusiasm about the plan — especially for a safer connection for bicycle commutes. Because there is no bike lane from the Woodside Ferry Terminal to Hines Road, cyclists are forced into sometimes heavy, fast-moving traffic on a part of Pleasant Street which resembles a highway. “People [at the first engagement session] really felt like they needed to be separated from the car traffic,” MacIsaac said, adding that he has heard concerns about the comfort of people walking or bicycling.

Despite the enthusiasm, some residents felt the planned reduction in southbound traffic lanes could impede the development of communities in South Dartmouth and beyond. “I think that the growth of Eastern Passage and Shearwater really depends on having a route into the city for automobiles,” said Grant MacDonald, a resident of Dartmouth. He told the Post that “the long-proposed Shearwater-Mount Hope Connector road could offer an alternative, even just for a bikeway route, connecting the two trails.” HRM has surveyed the changes to the Pleasant Street corridor route and says the street will “still [be] efficient,” referring to car traffic.

The project is expected to reach the Regional Council this summer. Construction is slated to begin in 2027 and 2028, continuing for multiple years.