The Big Lift project was causing big headaches in Halifax Monday morning, as the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge remained closed during the rush-hour commute.

“I asked my son how long it took to get to work … he left here at 7:30 and he go in at 9:10,” said Halifax councillor Gloria McCluskey.

The bridge was supposed to open at 5:30 a.m. Monday, but it was delayed until 10 a.m.

“We're very sorry we inconvenienced you today,” said John Eppell, chief engineer of Halifax Harbour Bridges. “We hope it won't happen again.”

Eppell says the lift is a complicated project that resulted in an accumulation of delays as the first bridge deck was replaced, starting with one difficult section.

“That took a few hours longer than planned,” said Eppell.

He also says there was an inaccessible bearing that had to be cut into chunks.

“We ran into a little challenge with making some adjustments to the traction rods,” said Eppell. “The contractor felt they would be on schedule. We got a notice rather late from them.”

“From 2:30 this morning on to 4:30, went on and had some challenges,” said Steve Snider, Halifax Harbour Bridges CEO.

Eppell says while traffic was backed up for kilometres in Dartmouth, the worst sections were in Halifax at the Fairview overpass and the single lane down Barrington Street. 

A case in the Supreme Court and one in provincial court were delayed due to the traffic tie-ups, as well as school buses and police officers crossing the bridge.

“There were some issues responding to low priority calls,” said Supt. Sean Auld of Halifax Regional Police.

 Auld says police planned for the delay and dealt with a number of scenarios.

“Some were traffic congestion, some were criminal actions on the bridge and some were weather bombs that would create a situation where they couldn't repair the bridge on their time schedule,” said Auld.

The bridge was closed over the weekend while crews worked to replace sections of the deck to raise the bridge 2.1 metres.

More than 100,000 vehicles cross the MacKay and Macdonald bridges every day.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Rick Grant