A broken down piece of equipment being used overnight as part of the Macdonald Bridge’s Big Lift left many commuters late for work Thursday morning.
The boom truck was unable to be towed, causing the bridge to reopen two hours late. The truck was moved at 7:15, with traffic flowing by 7:30.
“I hate saying I'm sorry again, but I'm sorry again and you know we want to get this project done and get out of the way,” says Steve Snider, CEO of Halifax Harbour Bridges.
Construction worker Jeremy Blair was scheduled to work on the St. Margaret’s Bay Road project, but was forced to wait half an hour at the foot of the bridge.
“Anything they could do to get that bridge done faster would help us motorists and workers, constructions workers a lot. I know it's hard,” says Blair.
The Big Lift was scheduled to be completed by fall 2017, but now the timeline is for May 2018. Construction on St. Margaret’s Bay Road is also delayed.
Nick Giannopoulos runs a business on the road. He says sales have been cut in half due to the road closures which began in July.
“It's agony,” says Giannopoulos. “The main artery of the city, St. Margaret's Bay Road … the whole city's upside down. Anybody care? I don't know. If they care they should have had it finished earlier than later.”
The city has said this project should be finished by late November and three could be fines upwards of $5,000 a day if some of the delays are the responsibility of the contractor.
As for the Big Lift, the ongoing overnight closures are supposed to end sometime in November.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.
