Both city and business officials in Halifax are hoping for creative solutions to untangle the mess of roads and ramps that have plagued Gottingen Street for decades.

The fate of the Cogswell Street Interchange has been a source of debate for decades and now the city is calling for tenders on the demolition of the large, isolated section of downtown highway.

Bernie Smith, the executive director of the North End Business Association, said the interchange is partly to blame for the decline of Gottingen Street.

"They really cut off the north end from the rest of downtown. It's really been an imposition on this city for 40 years. So we're just delighted at the thought of getting rid of it," Smith said.

Since it's a major transportation route the work will have to be done in phases. The city wants proposals for both the interchange and the immediate area.

The municipality is also asking companies to look at two different development scenarios: medium density on short city streets and higher buildings on larger city blocks.

"We want to examine both of those from an engineering prospective, from an urban design perspective, but also from a financial perspective," said Peter Bigelow, general manager of Real Property Planning for Halifax Regional Municipality.

The interchange was built in the 1970s as the centerpiece of a highway project that would have seen much of Halifax's historic waterfront turned into a four-lane highway. Public protest halted the project.

Anyone interested in the project has just over three weeks to submit a proposal.