Halifax bridges see steady rise in crossings, still below pre-pandemic numbers

The amount of people crossing the Halifax bridges continues to rise, but the numbers have yet to fully return to pre-pandemic levels.

The Angus L. Macdonald and A. Murray MacKay bridges saw 32,911,767 total crossings in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to an annual report from the Halifax Harbour Bridges. The number represented a slight improvement over 2022-2023, which had 32,252,686 total crossings.

The 2017-2018 fiscal year had 33,921,000 total crossings.

“Traffic has rebounded strongly from what it was during the Covid-19 pandemic, but we’re only now reaching the traffic levels we used to see,” said Michael McFeters, chief financial officer with Halifax Harbour Bridges, in the release. “As that happens though, we seem to see more weekend traffic and rush hours that are spread out over a longer period of time.”

The report noted the an average busy weekday in 2023-2024 saw up to 110,000 vehicles on the bridges while years prior to 2020 saw average weekdays with 114,000 vehicles.

“The Halifax Regional Municipality population has grown and there’s still lots of activity,” McFeters said. “But on the weekdays, this might be offset by the work-at-home trend. There’s a noticeable decrease in commuter traffic in people going to work five days a week.”

Paul Mackinnon with the Downtown Halifax Business Commission says there has been a growth in the number of people coming back to work, which is also great for the vitality of the downtown.

“About 56 per cent of our downtown are working hybrid in some fashion but our growth is really in ground floor businesses, lots of restaurants opening and of course those people are working from their downtown location. I think everyone I talk to and everyone is talking to is that traffic is getting much worse. We are growing significantly here, our city is growing like the population of Truro every single year,” said Mackinnon.

Busy traffic at a toll on the Macdonald Bridge. (Source: Emma Convey/CTV News Atlantic)

The year 2019 recorded 217 days with more than 100,000 vehicles on the bridges while the most recent fiscal year saw 187 such days.

The MacKay Bridge accounted for more than 60 per cent of the total crossings in 2023-2024 with 20,292,638. The Macdonald Bridge saw 12,619,129 crossings.

Aug, 31, 2023 saw 113,109 crossings in one day, the most in the fiscal year and more than the busiest day in the last fiscal year (110,970 crossings on Dec. 16, 2022). Both numbers were well below the all-time busiest recorded day (123,904 crossings on Dec. 14, 2012).

The report noted other major features in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, including the $5.4 million project to install two new 10,000 kg deck panels on the MacKay Bridge. The project is slated to win the Award of Excellence at the 2024 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards in Ottawa this October.

-With files from Emma Convey

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