HALIFAX – Eighteen months of overnight closures on the Macdonald bridge will start Sunday evening at 7 p.m.
Until the fall of 2016, the Macdonald bridge will be closed to traffic from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., Sunday to Thursday. Pedestrians and cyclists will be able to use the bridge until June 2015. However, at the end of June, the pedways will be closed until December 2016.
Alison MacDonald, communications manager with Halifax Harbour Bridges, said there may be some additional bridge closures.
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“Over the next 18 months there will be approximately 12 full weekend closures.”
Dubbed ‘The Big Lift,’ the construction project will cost $150 million and took nearly five years to plan.
The 60-year-old bridge deck will be replaced along with the pedestrian and cyclist paths on either side of the bridge.
Free buses will shuttle pedestrians and cyclists from the Dartmouth toll station to a Halifax stop. Tentatively, the Halifax-side stop is slated to be the wastewater treatment plant on Upper Water Street.
However, cycling advocates are working with the bridge commission to find a spot closer to the bridge.
“We’ve looked at several locations. We’ve passed those onto the bridge commission, and they’re looking and they’re trying to find a suitable location,” said Blair Barrington, a board member with the Halifax Cycling Coalition.
“I know they have their requirements that they need to meet, but they seem to be doing their best.”
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