HALIFAX – Halifax Harbour Bridges (HHB) will go ahead with the scheduled closure of the Macdonald Bridge this weekend.
The website states that the bridge will close Friday evening at 7 p.m. and will remain closed until 5:30 a.m. Monday morning.
“We have been working closely with the contractor to evaluate their approach to the second deck segment replacement, and are confident in their ability to proceed and re-open to users on time Monday, November 2nd,” CEO Steve Snider said in a release on Friday.
The statement also said HHB is being very cautious by evaluating the contractor’s plan to install the new deck segment this weekend efficiently and safely.
“When the next deck segment is put in place over the weekend, we expect to see an improvement of the angle of the transition plate – what our users know as ‘the bump’ – which should enable traffic to move more efficiently next week. There will always be transition plates while the project is underway, but we know this, and other recent improvements, should reduce ‘the bump,’” said Jon Eppell, Chief Engineer of HHB and Project Lead for the Big Lift.
This weekend’s work will see the second segment of the bridge’s new deck be installed, which involved severing a 20-metre segment of the existing deck, lowering it down, lifting and installing the new segment and securing it, and moving the gantry again.
Moving the gantry was responsible for last Friday’s delay of almost 9 hours.
On Tuesday, HHB issued a statement saying they would resume the overnight closures after a week of traffic snarls caused by The Big Lift work.
“HHB will update users on the status of the planned weekend closure for this coming weekend – Friday, October 30 – Monday, November 2nd within the next 36 hours,” the statement reads.
The Macdonald Bridge was open all weekend last week after the first full-weekend closure brought many issues and major delays to bridge users. HHB said they wanted to meet with the contractors to ensure they could meet deadlines before proceeding with closures.
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