It’s a Joel Plaskett emergency as the local legend joins us in studio with tales from the road. The storied son of Dartmouth talks about his critically acclaimed nostalgia opus, Ashtray Rock, and his busy year back in 2008. Then, award-winning journalist Matthieu Aikins calls in with reflections on his lauded Coast cover feature about […]
Macdonald Bridge
Posted inNews + Opinion
Coast 25: 30 of the most important things we’ve written
“Adam’s fall” Matthieu Aikins’ award-winning feature on suicides from the Macdonald Bridge is a heartbreaking read even now, a decade after its publication. A year after Aikins’ story was printed, the bridge commission finally decided to install safety barriers along the old bridge to prevent future deaths. Seals of approval One of the most-read stories […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bridge commission impossible
It was late January when I first approached Halifax Harbour Bridges trying to obtain a copy of the Crown corporation’s board minutes. It didn’t go so well. “We really don’t feel like it’s necessary to share the minutes,” says HHB communications manager Alison MacDonald. Halifax Harbour Bridges’ board members—some of whom are politicians themselves—are appointed […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Why weren’t we ready for the Big Lift?
Why weren’t we ready for The Big Bump? If you waited hours to get across the MacDonald Bridge lately, you might be wondering why there wasn’t a better plan to deal with the traffic chaos. For more than two years, the Halifax Harbour Bridge Commission has invested in a communications campaign for The Big Lift. It […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What’s that noise at night in the north end?
[Image-1] Insomniacs and those wandering home from the bars may have noticed some odd noises in the north end lately. A soft jackhammering has been drifting across the waves, carried along by the cool summer air and caused by continual Big Lift work on the Macdonald Bridge. “We have started rivet busting, which is loud, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What can you expect from the Big Lift?
Last night marked Dartmouth’s chapter of The Big Lift neighbourhood meeting hosted by Halifax Harbour Bridges, rescheduled from last Tuesday’s snow shitstorm to, you know, another crappy Tuesday. The bridge’s closest neighbours gathered in the Dartmouth Sportsplex Nantucket Room to a pretty nice spread of squares and coffee and a panel of bridge representatives, each […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Big Lift to be a big drag
[IMage-1] Welcome to The Coast’s ongoing coverage of the Big Lift. Get comfortable, we’re going to be here for a while. For the next 18 months, Halifax and Dartmouth are going to have to get acclimated to reduced use of the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge as significant and necessary repairs aim to extend the life […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Joyce MacIsaac, bridge ambassador
Joyce MacIsaac has the blinds open in her toll booth on the A. Murray MacKay Bridge. She’s doling out quarters and counting the axles on semi-trailers and watching, watching, watching…always watching: cars, passengers, lanes, drivers pulled over talking on cell phones, cargo vans rumbling at her down Highway 111, dogs popping their heads out of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
To a safer Macdonald bridge
Construction starts next week to extend euphemistically named “safety barriers” across the length of the Macdonald Bridge, along both the pedestrian walkway on the south side of the bridge and the bicycle lane along the north side of the bridge. The new barriers will match the existing barriers that extend only so far as the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
No heads-up for bridge closures.
What’s wrong? No heads-up for bridge closures. Who’s responsible? Alison MacDonald, spokesperson, bridge commission. REMARKS Why not put a sign announcing Macdonald Bridge closures on Hwy 102 at the 118 exit near Dartmouth Crossing, so drivers from the airport will know right there to take the McKay instead? Good idea, agrees MacDonald, but this coming […]
Posted inLifestyle
How to make a Halifax Bucket List
You have one summer left to live. The world ends after Labour Day. Now is the time to do it all, to suck the marrow out of Halifax. Start working on that bucket list. That’s the challenge we put to The Coast’s Twitter and Facebook friends and we received a pile of must-do activities. In […]