Bumper-to-bumper traffic on Winnipeg Main Street frustrates drivers

A massive traffic jam caused quite the headache for Winnipeg drivers Wednesday morning. It also puzzled Global News Morning’s traffic reporter.

Around 8 a.m., vehicles could be seen lined up on southbound Main Street from Redwood Avenue all the way downtown. Traffic was not moving, and according to Global’s traffic reporter, Justine Routhier, there weren’t any crashes or stalls.

Routhier was reporting from Global’s helicopter and could not see the cause of the traffic jam.

WATCH: Global’s SkyView1 captures the massive traffic jam Wednesday morning

0:52 Bumper-to-bumper traffic on southbound Main Street frustrates drivers

Drivers on the group also wondered why there were huge delays. Drivers told Global News they’re commute tripled in time.

“Main Street wasn’t moving,” Irene Bedry, who was 10 minutes late for work, said.

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RELATED: Giant garbage pile ties up traffic on Winnipeg bridge

It was a similar situation Tuesday morning too.

“If you’re just heading out, you will not want to take southbound Main Street,” Routhier told viewers.

“The only thing we can think of really is that the light cycling are out and that’s causing some delays,” Routhier said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The only thing we can think of really is that the light cycling are out and that's causing some delays," Routhier said.

This is the exact problem the city’s new Traffic Management Control Centre was supposed to prevent.

READ MORE: Real-time traffic management centre opens in Winnipeg

“Keeping the citizens moving and keeping our city moving is our objective,” Mayor Brian Bowman said when the centre opened in January.

There are 70 high tech cameras watching traffic across the city, many which can zoom in and see what’s happening three kilometres away.

The Traffic Signal Management System launched four months ago.

The city said staff did a software update on the traffic system Tuesday.  It caused some intersections to be disconnected from the system but said the problem was resolved within hours.  The city refused an on camera interview but blames Wednesday’s delay on some lane closures for hydro work.

“There are also some lane closures on southbound Main Street due to Hydro work that are impacting traffic flow in the downtown.” wrote the city in an email to Global News.

Our traffic reporter couldn’t see any lane closures in the affected areas.

“No crash, no stall any issue that we could find.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "No crash, no stall any issue that we could find."

The city says it’ll see if any changes need to be made to avoid future delays.