Thousands of Haligonians were late to work again Wednesday morning due to an untimely combination of vehicle crashes and construction.
Rush-hour traffic in the Halifax Regional Municipality has been a bit of a nightmare since Labour Day, and there's no relief in sight until the snow flies.
An astonishing 300 projects are underway in municipality this season, including significantly more road work that the city's undertaken.
"We're in a period right now where we want to get as much done as we can before the winter sets in. We can't do this 12 months of the year,” says Halifax Mayor Mike Savage.
Halifax Water is also scrambling to finish some jobs, or they could lose millions in federal funding.
"It's a push to try and save money for our rate payers, but we understand it causes some confusion and traffic hassles in the meantime," says James Campbell, spokesperson for Halifax Water.
But that’s coming as cold comfort for commuters like Trudy Dyer, who keeps leaving earlier for work every day.
“I think (Wednesday) was probably one of the worst days I’ve had commenting in from Beaver Bank. It was about two hours and 15 minutes," Dyer says.
Car crashes aren’t helpful either. There were 14 of them in the city before noon.
“That being said, these last couple of weeks since school has started back, I don't think it's made a difference to leave any earlier. Traffic just seems to be getting worse and worse and worse,” Dyer says.
The public service announcements keep coming from the city. Motorists are being warned about work on Inglis and Barrington streets, as well as Fall River Road and Lacewood this week.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko.
