Traffic snarls hampered some of the excitement over the opening of the new Waaban crossing.
During the first evening rush hour, some commuters reported their drive home taking twice as long as normal due to back-ups at the John Counter Boulevard and Montreal Street intersection.
Traffic was getting backed up behind vehicles looking to turn onto the bridge.
“I find that it’s hard to get around that left hand lane because it doesn’t hold very many cars. I think if our mayor looks into it, it’ll be okay,” said Kingston resident and commuter Adele Sparks.
Kingston resident, Jean Hamilton is optimistic traffic congestion will ease over time.
“I think once people balance it out and stuff, it should get better. Just like any exit. Montreal Street, Division, whatever, it’s going to be fine after a while,” said Hamilton.
The City of Kingston is aware of the traffic tie-ups Tuesday night and made changes to the signal patterns.
The municipality will continue tweak the traffic signals on both ends of the bridge.
In a statement to global news the city’s major projects office says:
“Now less than one day old, we anticipate it will take some time for ‘normal’ traffic patterns to become established on the bridge, especially with residents eager to visit it for the first time and the holiday season in full swing.
Based on observations from Tuesday’s opening, the city will be making traffic signal timing adjustments at both Montreal street-John Counter Boulevard and Gore Road-Highway 15 intersections.”
Around noon on Wednesday there were some long lines of vehicles waiting to get through the intersection.
While the Waaban Crossing is experiencing some initial start up pains, the crossing does appear to be easing traffic volumes at the Lasalle Causeway, near the city’s downtown core.