Halifax bridge closed for maintenance across two weekends

The MacKay Bridge will be closed for two weekends in November and December for “critical maintenance,” according to Halifax Harbour Bridges (HHB).

In a news release, the organization said the 53-year-old MacKay Bridge will be closed from 7 p.m. on Nov. 24 to 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 27, and from 7 p.m. on Dec. 1 to 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 4.

“There is no good time to close one of our bridges, but unfortunately more full closures are going to be necessary as the structures require an increasing amount of maintenance as they age,” said HHB CEO Tony Wright in the Tuesday release.

Workers will spend the weekends replacing two 10,000 kilogram deck sections. They will be the eighth and ninth such replacements on the bridge since 2010.

“The bridge is safe and the inspections are doing what they are supposed to be doing: they are identifying challenges that we need to address,” said chief bridge engineer Ahsan Chowdhury.

The construction work, which will require the work of a 100-tonne crane, will happen during the Holiday Parade of Lights on Saturday and HHB, along with Halifax Transit, is asking people to plan to go early and stay late due to traffic congestion.

“We’ve been planning the work for several months. We have specialty workers from across Canada on site. We delayed last weekend to accommodate the Parade of Lights. Unfortunately, with winter weather approaching, we couldn’t delay any longer,” said Wright.

A tender to identify the challenges linked with a rehabilitation of the bridge is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

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