Work on Dartmouth’s Bridge Terminal should begin by the “end of the month,” city officials say. This is the first public acknowledgement that an important contract has been signed for the much-delayed Metro Transit bus station.
Quebec firm Pomerleau was awarded the $12.1 million contract for construction earlier this month, just after the provincial Department of Environment approved a management plan to deal with the pyritic slate on the site. The plan allows for the re-use of 10,500 cubic metres onsite for fill, but any more than that must be carted off to one of the two local disposal sites—at the nearby King’s Wharf project on the Dartmouth waterfront, or at Mill Cove in Bedford.
The one last hurdle before construction can start is a building permit, which is mostly pro forma (this is a city project and the city handles the permits).
Construction this fall will consist of clearing the trees and excavation. There’s no requirement that construction be done outside of school hours, but officials insist that the already construction-ravished Dartmouth High next door will not be adversely affected.
Pouring of concrete and especially asphalt will most likely have to wait until spring. Construction is expected to take about a year.
This article appears in Sep 15-21, 2011.
Where will the fill go ?
What will it be used for ?
You are taKling about at least 20,000 tonnes of slate. (A cubic metre of water is 1 tonne and we all know that slate is a damn sight heavier than water. Don’t know what the SG of the slate is)
jb– it’s a pretty uneven site. Just leveling it off will involve taking some of the uphill stuff and putting it downhill.
I’d like to understand the slate thing better– at Washmill, the dept of environment did *not* allow any of the slate to be used on site. Maybe because there are freshwater streams nearby… nothing like that near the Bridge Terminal, tho.
Read the article to answer your questions. It couldn’t be clearer: they can use 10,500 cubic meters for fill on-site, anything above that will go in the harbour as fill for other projects.
And before you off on dumping, this is how pyritic slate is treated. Rather than have a high concentration of minerals in the soil by way of dumping above ground, the minerals are diluted to nothing in the ocean.
Slate is about 2.6 times heavier than water.
Bundy – I know all about pyritic slate but thanks for the SG number.
tim – any chance of a visual explanation showing where the fill fits into the design of the terminal. Fill was never mentioned at the public meeting and not in any report and when the slate issue arose staff talked about trucking it away. Now they want to use it as fill.
Time to go take some pictures of the area quick before it’s all gone I guess…
Wow! I’m not going to miss those woods one bit. I would suggest the coast ask people who have to use the Bridge Terminal on a daily basis(they have not). No one will miss it and it will clean up the area. I find it rather interesting the same happened out in Cole Harbour and no one even said a word.
The paths of those woods are in fact the old street grid, from around the middle of the 1800s – old cart paths. Just sort of neat. I know it’s cool now to make up things about murders and junkies in the woods, things that never happened, in an effort to get the bus stop built. Whatever it takes I guess. Just sad this whole thing was so rushed through without any real thought about alternative locations. Just like everything else “planning” related in this city. Status quo takes the cake
I use the Bridge Terminal on a twice-daily basis, and live very close to the woods.
I’ve always been ambivalent about the removal of the woods, and believe my reporting has reflected that. One the one hand, I don’t really see any problems with them– I walk through them every day– and maybe they provide some needed space for high school kids to smoke pot. But on the other hand, it’s not the end of the world to tear them out, and we definitely need a bigger Bridge Terminal. Maybe there was a better way to do this, but I’m OK with how it’s unfolded, if not exactly an unquestioning cheerleader.
I guess I don’t see how anyone could take offense at this article, or suggest bias. I’m just reporting what’s happening.
Tim – I’m certainly not offended! Not at you anyway – I’m offended by how things happen around here, but that has nothing to do with reporting it. Carry on! haha
so we were unable to find any talent for building in NS keeping the money here? great job rolling eyes
I will miss the woods…we should have kept them in the design for green space and sitting/waiting areas….many disabled people use the bus and have no where to sit waiting…
It’s called progress and change. Yes everyone in the Halifax region is scared of it but the drug addicts will have to find another place and the removal of “green space” took place in many areas of Cole Harbour with little interest from The Coast(I’m still wonder why they just ignored this? ) . I think the local wildlife such as the needles and used condoms and all those McDonald bags and cups might have to find a new place to live.(a garbage can would be the best.)
The Coast should ask people who really live in the area about this project.( What is stopping you? you might get opinions that do not fall into the Coast politics?) No one in this area who live around there will not miss it also I think the opinion of Tim Bousquet does not really count as the “whole area”. Why not ask people at the Bridge terminal? oh I forgot it might not be safe do conduct such a matter.
It’s progress and I really doubt it not doing to affect the local wildlife either since there might me a garbage can around to put all those Mc Donald bags and the condoms might disappear all together since they might have to find a different place for it. I got a proposal all the wildlife can be moved to Point Pleasant park or the Public Gardens and lets see how many people would want that out of the area and I the Coast should as the city not to remove it but it’s Halifax and they get all they want
Needles! lol. Charles the great you are full of shit. I think you got this park confused with the lower east side… of Vancouver
Walk through there.
The slate is acceptable for use as fill under the low low tide level in salt water. This is because the phenomenom that causes the low pH runoff from the broken, exposed slate is catalysed by a bacterium, but that micro-organism cannot survive in salt water.
Similarly, acid generating slate can be used as fill on a site if it is encapsulated such that rainwater and oxygen cannot get at it. The bacterium needs both fresh water and oxygen to create the problem. Landscaped “mounds” above grade are sometimes used to hide excess fill. You can essentially “smother” them. Active healthy topsoil layers on top are also good, as the microorganisms in the topsoil will strip most of the oxygen from rain landing on the ground – that’s why there is no problem from this rock until we expose it – exposed slate has too much freely available iron and sulphur for water and oxygen to mess with. The reaction is initially a chemical one (water, sulphur and air making H2SO4 – sulphuric acid), but is slow compared to what happens when the bacteria that accelerate the process get established. This acidic water running over the rock then leaches out metals which are soluable at the lower pH. Dissolved Aluminum is one of the more harmful ones, as it kills fish, kinda in the same way Carbon Monoxide kills us.
Interestingly, when my company oversaw the huge relocation of slate rock fill from Bayers Lake to the Bedford Waterfront Development in the late 1980’s, they paid us for the fill at the start, and later, took it for free. Now, you actually pay people for the privilege of creating their infill for them! So you try to use it on site where you can.
all those pretty glass windows will be smashed within the month.