Macdonald Bridge closure leads to heavy traffic congestion in Halifax

The only vehicles on the Macdonald Bridge this weekend belong to work crews, with scheduled maintenance closing the span for the duration of the weekend.

“There’s extra traffic all around everywhere,” says motorist Jill Burke.

Especially around the approaches to the crossings where a number of routes converge into a bottleneck to get on the bridge.

To try and avoid the extra traffic, many chose to use the ferry rather than challenge the congestion on the MacKay.

“For someone who goes back-and-forth quite a bit between Halifax and Dartmouth, I find the closures that happen during the summer, they’re a bit inconvenient,” says Melanie Ross Breen.

“It wasn’t that bad getting down here today, but I find the worst time is when the Mackay Bridge is closed and everybody has to take the Macdonald Bridge. It’s a lot worse than when the Macdonald Bridge is closed and you have to take the Mackay,” adds Patrick O’Neill of Dartmouth.

This weekend’s closure also coincides with a Halifax Wanderers home game and the Shindig Music Festival. Both events taking place within a block of each other and are drawing thousands of people into the centre of the city.

“It’s impossible for them to plan because it seems like every weekend and there’s something amazing happening and people have to cross the bridge,” Ross Breen says.

The work is necessary, but it is also weather dependant.

“They were doing some line painting, they were doing some welding of some important guard rails, but the most important piece they did was to replace a bearing that has been in place since the bridge was built,” says Steve Proctor, Halifax Harbour Bridges spokesperson. “We can’t replace the bearing, it’s right underneath the bridge, while there’s traffic going across.”

The bridge closed Friday at 7 p.m. and reopens Monday at 5:30 a.m. Proctor says there are no more planned closures of either bridge this year. That may change however during the regular maintenance checks performed on both of the city’s aging bridges.

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