Cogswell Interchange
| Cogswell Interchange | |
|---|---|
General view
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|
| Location | |
| Halifax, Nova Scotia | |
| Roads at junction: |
Barrington Street, Cogswell Street, Upper Water Street, Hollis Street |
| Construction | |
| Type: | Multi-level interchange |
| Spans: | 3 |
| Constructed: | 1969 |
| Opened: | 1970 |
| Maintained by: | Halifax Regional Municipality and Province of Nova Scotia |
Coordinates: 44°39′06″N 63°34′35″W / 44.651742°N 63.576474°W
The Cogswell Interchange is a multi-level highway interchange in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was built as the first stage of a greater scheme for an elevated freeway, called Harbour Drive, which would have run south through downtown and necessitated demolition of much of the downtown building stock. The plan was halted in the face of significant public opposition, but the Cogswell Interchange remains a visible reminder, occupying a large amount of prime land and posing a barrier to pedestrian movement. As the interchange is functionally obsolete and increasingly expensive to maintain, the municipal government has commissioned several studies proposing its demolition and replacement with a more conventional street grid.
The city began purchasing land and demolishing buildings in the 1950s in anticipation of the highway construction. In the 1960s, urban renewal planning was underway all over North America and Europe, and Halifax was no exception. In 1962, the city placed advertisements in newspapers seeking development proposals for the Central Redevelopment Area, an area of several city blocks worth of older wood-framed buildings. This eventually became Scotia Square, a complex of office, residential and hotel towers atop parking garages and a shopping mall.
The developers of Scotia Square, a project of a scale hitherto unattempted in the Maritimes, stressed the importance of improved transport infrastructure to the complex and commissioned a study recommending a conceptual precursor to "Harbour Drive", a proposed elevated freeway running parallel to the water, similar to the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto.
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