Commuters struggled with long delays and major traffic snarls in Halifax Tuesday morning as the Macdonald Bridge didn’t open on schedule.
The bridge re-opened just before 10 a.m., but not before the more than four hour delay wreaked havoc on the city throughout the morning.
The bridge was scheduled to open at 5:30 a.m. when difficulties with The Big Lift project put traffic across the city at a stand still.
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Commuters reported back ups all the way past the Mic Mac Mall as they tried to get from Dartmouth to Halifax on the MacKay Bridge.
There were so many Haligonians tweeting about the delay that “Macdonald Bridge” was trending on Twitter.
HHB spokesperson Allison Currie says workers ran into issues replacing a piece of steel under the road deck.
Earlier estimates had the bridge opening at 6:15 a.m., 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., but shortly after 7:30, HHB tweeted they had no idea when things would get back to normal.
Halifax Transit had several routes on detour and the ferry operating from Alderney Landing extended its crossings of every 15 minutes until 10 a.m. to accommodate more passengers.
With files from Dave Squires.