Antigonish Town Council hosted a town hall debrief Tuesday night on the Bay Street project.
The idea was to review lessons from the Bay Street project and how to improve 2026-2027 fiscal year capital project planning and execution. Between Christmas and the end of January, staff reviewed data and met with the project team, contractors, and hospital representatives for an after-action review.
The most recent work replaced a failed sewer main that effectively had no bottom left and was leaking and taking in water. As for what went well, Antigonish CAO Randy Delorey noted night work was effective due to decreased traffic volumes, the contractor was able to generally accommodate requests from the flowthrough of emergency vehicles and doctors to the hospital, with one minor delay incident reported and not negative health outcomes. Delorey also stated in the presentation that traffic volume and the bottleneck location were major issues for the project, with stop and go traffic leading to wait times and delays throughout. He also noted multiple projects taking pace simultaneously increased frustration of motorists, residents, and businesses.
Solutions presented include utilizing detours whenever possible and building a northern collector for Bay Street work, while following the traffic control best practices and guidelines. Other items include setting up a dedicated communications staff person, while working with partners like the chamber of commerce for enhanced input and amplify messaging, ensuring staff have the tools required to enforce, and earlier capital approval and tendering, with extra consideration when multiple major traffic impacting projects take place at the same time.
Council fielded several questions from residents asking about a timeline for future work on Bay Street, traffic numbers, frustrations with communication issues, as well as suggestions for more night work.
Before closing the town hall session, Mayor Sean Cameron read a letter from Antigonish Chamber of Commerce President Paul Curry. Curry noted the traffic issues had real and measurable impacts on customer access, sales and staff operations, as well as concerns about access to the hospital.
Curry’s letter noted that the chamber is asking whether a modest coordination framework could be adopted to better account for economic impacts. Curry also stated in the letter the Chamber would welcome the opportunity to work with the town and county to explore whether a straightforward coordination or review process could be put in place for future projects affecting key commercial areas.
Following the reading of Curry’s letter, Cameron said council wasn’t there to make excuses and that they are taking ownership of the issues. He said they identified problems and potential solutions to prevent similar things from happening again. The big thing they learned, Cameron said, is the need for a permanent alternate route to St. Martha’s Hospital. He said letters went out to neighboring municipalities asking for support of the alternate route, adding it is not just an Antigonish issue.