The locks on the private road were changed at 6 p.m. Tuesday. (CBC)

Protesters from a predominately black community near Halifax are ending a two-day blockade now that the access to a private dirt road that had been granted to only a handful of residents has been revoked.

A deal was reached Tuesday that bans all but the road owners and emergency vehicles from the single lane near North Preston.

Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly, local Coun. David Hendsbee and the RCMP agreed on the new rules as demonstrators protested on Lake Major Road, near the lane, for a second day.

"The locks will be changed at 6 p.m. and those keys will no longer be valid other than for the property owner and the golf course," Kelly said.

He also said the municipality will work with the province to improve road conditions and lighting on the detour road out of North Preston. The mayor also agreed to meet with North Preston residents next week to discuss other community issues.

The protesters from North Preston say they accept the new terms.

The demonstrators were outraged that 10 families were given keys to the padlocked road, which runs along a golf course, thereby gaining access to an exclusive shortcut that enabled them to bypass a lengthy detour around a bridge undergoing repairs.

They said it smacked of racism because the families given the special access are white.

Hendsbee defended the road restriction on Monday, saying the 10 families are the people most inconvenienced by the construction and that the private dirt road cannot handle all of the traffic from North Preston. He said it came down to geography, not race.

Hendsbee said the Halifax Regional Municipality spent $40,000 to upgrade the road and culverts in case police, firefighters or paramedics had to use it.