Before the new Burnside Connector can be built linking Bedford to the Burnside industrial park, the area will need to be swept for unexploded ordnance, says a new report.

The province announced funding for the nine-kilometre, four-lane highway in April. The project, which will connect Akerley Boulevard near Highway 118 in Dartmouth to Duke Street near Highway 102 in Bedford, is expected to take five years.

But before any excavators or bulldozers can begin their work, experts will need to search the area for unexploded ordnance, or UXO. Unexploded ordnance can be bombs or other explosive weapons such as shells, grenades or cluster munition.

Fire at ammunition depot

In 1945, a huge fire at the Bedford Magazine, now called the Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot, set off a series of explosions and smaller fires that lasted for more than 24 hours. As a result, UXO were strewn around the property and the nearby water of the Bedford Basin.

Afterwards, the Department of National Defence deemed the area within a one-mile radius to be at risk of having UXO.

"UXO may contribute to the fire hazard ... and pose a direct safety risk," notes the registration for environmental assessment filed by the provincial transportation department on Friday.

Ammunition explodes at the Bedford Magazine on July 19, 1945. (Yarmouth County Historical Society/Nova Scotia Archives)

Over the years, ordnance have been found as far away as Anderson Lake, Burnside and the site of where Mic Mac Mall is housed today.

The area of potential impact includes lands just to the south of the proposed highway.

The document says the likelihood of encountering during construction is low.

Ordnance clearing and removal is expected to be contracted to Defence Construction Canada, a Crown corporation.

About the project

Construction of the highway has been considered and debated for more than 25 years.

The connector, officially an extension of Highway 107, is expected to reduce traffic volumes on the Magazine Hill by about 27 per cent, says the environmental assessment document.

The project will include a four-metre-wide active transportation trail that runs parallel to the highway but is separated by a high-tension cable guardrail system. The Halifax Regional Municipality will be responsible for exploring how to connect that trail to residential areas of Bedford and Sackville.

This is the end of Duke Street at Rocky Lake Drive in Bedford, where the western end of the new highway will begin. (Frances Willick/CBC)

A series of new roundabouts will be built to accommodate the project, including several along Duke Street at the intersections of Highway 102, Damascus Road and Rocky Lake Drive. The intersection of Burnside Drive and Akerley Boulevard will also get one, and new interchanges with roundabouts will be built in the Burnside area.

The Burnside industrial park has more than 1,500 businesses and 15,000 employees, says the document.

Clearing of vegetation for the project is expected to start in December.

Environmental assessment

The assessment does not identify any significant impacts on flora, fauna, birds or fish, though some at-risk species were found in the area.

Anderson Lake, situated just north of the planned highway, was the site of a federal effort to help the recovery of the endangered Atlantic whitefish. But the environmental assessment document notes that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has found no evidence to date that the population is established.

The threatened American eel is found in the area but does not spawn there, and the brook trout, which has a status of "sensitive," may also be found there, but spawning habitat is limited and poor, says the document.

A number of bird and raptor species were observed in the area, including some at-risk species that could nest in the area.

The environmental assessment registration also notes that while wetlands were avoided where possible, the project will cause the loss of some wetland.

Residents can submit comments on the proposal until Aug. 6.