Concerns over road repairs in Nova Scotia as more rain falls

As parts of Nova Scotia still recover from last month’s historic flooding, work is still being done on many roads in the Halifax-area.

The municipality says it inspected all roadways after the floods, and the inspections have led to approximately 1,500 work orders.

“We have prioritized these work orders and we’ve completed about 10 per cent,” said Laura Wright, a Halifax municipal spokesperson.

The city has more than 100 public works staff and other contractors working on the repairs.

“We are seeing most work orders pertain to soft shoulder, so we really encourage everyone who’s using the roadways to be careful when there are soft or damaged shoulders,” said Wright.

Lower Sackville councilor Paul Russell says the initial goal was to have most of the roads repaired in time for the new school year in a few weeks, but with the number of road repairs left, the city is focusing on having it done before the winter season.

“It’s difficult to put a timeline on this, because of the amount of work there is to do here,” he said.

On Thursday, the city sent out an hfxALERT about heavy rains on the way.

The city said while it is not expecting the same extreme damage seen during the floods during the latest rainfall, there is concern over the new repairs.

“Did the work that we just did to make sure the shoulder of the road is patched, is that work going to hold up? Is any of the new paving going to hold up? We hope so,” said Russell.

Russell said the rapidly changing weather events have left many people nervous about what to expect after the rain.

“We’ve had a number of storms testing the repairs we’ve done again. Everyone is nervous, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The city said it does not know the full extent of the repairs costs just yet, however, it will be using money from the municipality’s risk reserve – an emergency fund – to pay for the flood damages.

“We have about 10 million dollars in this risk reserve that we’re able to use in situations like this, and the closest estimate that I’ve heard is that we will use all of it,” said Russell.

The city says it has not taken any preventative measures for Friday’s rainfall, but is working on measures to take for future weather events.

“We are looking at previous flood reports and introducing new by-laws while changing others. We know the weather is changing and we have to mitigate and work with it,” explained Russell.

For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.