Spring Garden Road streetscaping project is almost done. Here’s what it entails

The streetscaping project for Spring Garden Road in Halifax has been in the making since 2018, but construction officially began last summer and is now almost complete.

After years in the works, Halifax Regional Municipality’s plan to revitalize Spring Garden Road is nearing completion.

The Imagine Spring Garden Road project aims to make the busy downtown street a better place for pedestrians and transit users, according to project manager Elora Wilkinson.

The streetscaping project has been in the making since 2018, but construction officially began last summer.

“Widening the sidewalks was the really major thing – giving people a little bit more space, the street didn’t have anywhere to sit, spend time,” Wilkinson said in an interview.

“Before it was really crowded on the sidewalk, with people waiting for the bus and trying to get through. Now everyone has a bit more space.”

With the sidewalks now widened, Wilkinson said the city just has some final touches left, including tidying up some of the pavers and cobblestones that may have shifted over the winter.

But the biggest remaining task is landscaping. Currently, the large concrete planters lining the street have only thin soil and a few sparse plants.

“What’s there right now isn’t HRM standard,” Wilkinson acknowledged, “so we had to kind of pause that, re-evaluate and make sure the final project that we were installing is what we needed.