TRURO - The facelift of the heart of downtown Truro's shopping district is nearing completion.
The $1.2-million revitalization of Inglis Place, which started in June, is expected to be complete in the coming weeks.
"It's been a huge project," said Debbie Elliott, Downtown Truro Partnership's executive director. "It's been 20 years in the making and we're very, very proud of it."
Gone are the cumbersome concrete bollards, uneven sidewalks and raised parking spaces. In their place is a safe, inviting atmosphere.
"I think it's just an incredible improvement. I think it's an indication of what can be done and where Truro is going," Elliott said.
Mayor Bill Mills is pleased with the project.
"I actually took a walk down last night. It's cleaner and I think it's certainly going to help people as far as parking is concerned," he said Wednesday.
The bollards have often been a source of frustration with motorists attempting to parallel park along either side of the one-way street.
While there was some concerns the work would negatively impact retailers, for the most part, it hasn't been too bad. Some businesses are reporting slightly lower August sales but it is hard to tell if it is because of the construction.
Curiosity about the project even drew some people to downtown, Elliott said, and a large crowd gathered to watch the final layer of asphalt being laid.
A grand opening celebration is tentatively being scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 22. It is expected to include music, entertainment and an official brick laying ceremony.
The project is the first phase of the Downtown Truro Urban Design Strategy or Master Plan.
Mills said the revitalization committee will meet again in late fall to determine what the next step is.
"Hopefully, we'll have everything ready to go for next summer's construction season," he said.
jmalloy@trurodaily.com
Inglis Place revitalization project coming to an end
Inglis Place revitalization project coming to an end
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Published on
August 30, 2007
- Published on January 1, 2010
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Jason Malloy
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Comments
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- Concerned
- - January 18, 2010 at 11:18:36
Andrew M, You're kidding right?!?!!? The only thing that leads me to believe you're not kidding is the fact that you brought Corda into this. If they have a hand in the design, everything would suddenly all make sense to me now. You're talking about a bunch of people that would hire a consultant to do a $100,000 study (with OUR MONEY) to figure out how to conserve water in their office washroom....
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- Rob
- - January 18, 2010 at 11:10:01
Do you all look in this paper just to complain. At least complain that now all those old buildings that are run down sit on a brand new modern street.
It wouldn't matter what they fixed or did the citizens would still complain. -
- Ally
- - January 18, 2010 at 11:07:05
I think they have modernized Inglis Street and got rid of all the charm it once had. Yeah it was falling apart, but now it looks like any other street except for Truro etched marble cubes lining the sidewalk.
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- Concerned
- - January 18, 2010 at 11:03:28
Yes, it looks better. Does it look over a million dollars better? No! Are some problems fixed? Yes! Are new ones created? Yes! The whole narrowing of the prince street street inglis interchange is IDIOTIC! It was BAD before but is WORSE now. You have to slow to a crawl to enter the narrow route driving just an SUV, never mind an armored car or delivery truck. On Prince, the narrowing of an already narrow street in that one section is going to lead to vehicles sideswiping each other. People who live here know to expect it (IF they remember it), however out of towners don't and are the ones who are going to be invloved in these TA's. This adds to another spot to the other 3 disaster areas already created by the town. Those being: Willow and Arthur, where you are forced to choose between sideswiping the vehicles in the the north bound turning lane or hitting the vehicles in the south bounding turning box head on when driving straight thru, same deal at Prince and Walker, and short turning box vs. short turning box head on at Prince and Willow. Drivers ARE NOT supposed to be playing dodge the vehicle in the middle of an intersection when travelling straight thru and lane deviation in an intersection in most places of the world IS AGAINST THE LAW. I hope someone SUES the town and the designer of these DANGEROUS creations when they do get in a TA, because they DESERVE it. I just hope it doesn't involve DEATHS. No where else in this world (and I've travelled to a heck of a lot of places) have I seen such idiotic, accident creating, planning.
Now, Inglis street. The buisnesses in the Inglis street DUST BOWL suffered HORRIBLY this summer, contrary to the false truths in this story. I was in my bank yesterday, and they had ONE teller working, when they normally have 4 or 5 on. Are they getting compensated for this tax wise this year? I sincerely doubt it. The construction is SHODDY at best. Every concrete expansion joint is already a trip point, BEFORE the frost gets to it. More brick?? Are you freakin' kidding me?!?! You would have thought they would have learnt a lesson from all the brick laid over the past 30 years in the town but NOOOOOO. Let's lay more brick down to HEAVE and get torn up by the snowplows. Yeah, that's right, snowplows. Am I the only one that realizes construction in Nova Scotia needs to be conducive to snowplows? It's like every spring they forget that it snows, get stupid, and set about building something else designed for Florida. Lastly, Who in the heck gave these jokers 5 months to do a 1 month project?!?! Most days this summer they've had 1-3 guys working there. YESTERDAY, they had the whole street closed off for the day for NO REASON AT ALL. They weren't doing ANYTHING except reserving PARKING for THEMSELVES while they worked on Prince. During the project they had concrete forms (AKA massive TRIP points) outside one business for 3 weeks straight before actually pouring concrete. They've been pulling people OFF the job all summer to go complete OTHER projects around the province with CONSTICTIVE timelines to REDUCE damage to businesses. The TOWN dropped the ball big time on this one. They should have given them a 6 week timeline with penalties thereafter (like any person who had 1/4 of a clue would do) and assigned a full time on site project manager to it from the town to take the contractor to task on the spot with the concerns of businesses. That's what they SHOULD have done, if they HAD a CLUE. For pete's sake, the town's own sidewalk dept could have doen a better job twice as fast for half as much, and we all know they don't exactly work at the speed of light. It's amazing what can be accomplished in a suprisingly little amount of time if you atleast WORK on something, even if you're NOT fast. -
- Gerald
- - January 18, 2010 at 10:52:51
20 years in the making (laughs out loud) the last time the street was redone was about 20 years ago. The road in front of my house has'nt been repaved in 40 yrs
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- Monica
- - January 18, 2010 at 10:47:59
While this project has caused easier parking options, and it most certainly looks a lot better, it will not bring more people to the downtown. The people who want to shop there already do and the people who don't shop there do so because of the rediculously high prices of nearly every store on that street.
It does look lovely, however over one million dollars could have been spent better in other areas of our great town. -
- Andrew
- - January 18, 2010 at 10:45:36
This is just the first step in ensuring that the downtown continues to be the centrepiece of this region - the entire Salmon River valley.
The history and unique streetscapes of Prince and Inglis and adjacent areas were the centrepiece of the economy in the past and are our future.
Trust me, when gas prices continue to rise over the next few decades, more people will be living close to the downtown, working close to the downtown and shopping close to the downtown. The Wal-Mart and shopping mall areas will be the areas that experience the decline.
I commend the people who made this redevelopment happen and can only hope that the master plan gets carried further.
#1 Prince Street and Victoria Square need similar refurbishment.
#2 Continue with the plan to extend Inglis south to the intersection of Brunswick/Park.
#3 Redevelop the Truro Centre to have a more inviting streetscape along the Esplanade. We also desperately need a new railway station.
#4 We need to continue to fill in the parking lots in the downtown along Forrester, Havelock, Outram and Esplanade with inviting buildings that house offices and residences.
I congratulate the partnership, CORDA and the town for their vision thus far. May it only continue. -
- jl
- - January 18, 2010 at 10:38:54
Nice spend over a million on fixing a st that im sorry i never found problems parking on. But in the meanwhile im playing dodge the pot hole in truro heights. I agree this money could of been spent differently, and those shops are high prices . Yup sure looks nice wait till we get the group that smokes and hangs out in from of inglis st timmys.Or some lil punk gonna think it cute to deface it im sure.
