Houses bought for Bayers Road widening

It appears the groundwork is quietly being laid for another road widening project on the Halifax peninsula — the Highway 102-Bayers Road corridor.

The Halifax Regional Municipality and the province have bought some homes along the route, even though a consultant's final report on the project hasn't been presented to council yet.

Fourteen homes would be affected if Bayers Road is widened to five or six lanes between the CN rail overpass and Connaught Avenue.

That has some homeowners in the area worried.

Highway 102 could end up in Sayid Arab's backyard. He's lived on Abbott Drive for 40 years, and doesn't' want to move.

"You don't know where to go…We want to be here, we want to stay here. I hope they change their mind and leave people alone," he said Tuesday. "People are happy here."

A public hearing was held about the Highway 102-Bayers Road proposal 18 months ago. Since then, the Halifax Regional Municipality has bought two homes on Bayers Road.

More recently, the province bought a house on Abbott Drive.

But, officials said that doesn't mean the proposal will go ahead. Both the city and the province said they're only buying houses that are offered to them.

But in a declassified document from August 2009, HRM senior staff wrote:  "The study will show that increasing roadway demands resulting from regional growth will require additional lane capacity on this corridor within the next 7 to 15 years."

That doesn't put Sayid Arab's mind to rest.

"When you go to sleep in the night you think about it, " he said. "Am I going to be here for a while? Will they leave us alone? You don't know what they're going to do."

Bayers Road is a major route used by commuters as they make their way onto the peninsula. Consultants say it must be expanded in order to accommodate the growth in traffic predicted over the next 30 years.