Drivers who use the Lincoln Alexander Parkway (Linc) may experience some delays over the next couple of months as city workers install new signage on the busy roadway.
The city’s director of transportation says lane restrictions will happen first on exit ramps between Dartnall Road and Golf Links Road daily between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
“Outside those times there’s not going to be any lane restrictions,” Mike Field told Global News.
Field says the work is connected with “urgent” rolling closures undertaken in 2019 after two consultant reports revealed some overhead signs on catwalks and other structures along the roadway had potential safety issues.
That action fixed “cracking” and “aluminum bolts that were rusting badly” through the removal of catwalks and structures that held large signs on the Linc.
“During that phase, we … inspected those structures and they have essentially become at a stage where they’re end of life,” said Field.
“So over the past little while, we’ve been planning the removal of those structures and because they hold the signs when we remove them, we have to replace them with new signs.”
This year, 11 pieces will be removed with new installations happening at off-ramps supplementing signage set to disappear on existing overhead pieces.
Field says there’s “huge financial benefit” to retiring overhead sign structures and replacing them with ones on the side of the roadway.
The cost to maintain and repair just two of the overhead signs would have cost the city somewhere around $500,000.
Full overnight closures are anticipated in July to take down the no-longer-needed overhead structures.
“That work is being planned out right now, so the actual closure dates are not exactly defined yet, but it will be later in the summer,” Field said.
Engineering and tendering work contributed to the gap between 2019 initiatives and the work yet to come, according to Field.
Work is being scheduled during daylight hours for the safety of the contractors tasked with doing the changes.