Major traffic backups on Hillsborough Bridge a thing of the past, engineer says
'Give yourself an extra five or 10 minutes with construction going on. But we won't delay traffic very much.'
Drivers who regularly travel on the Hillsborough Bridge can expect minimal traffic delays following two significant backups this month, according to the Department of Transportation.
Stephen Yeo, the department's chief engineer, said the traffic congestion on Wednesday was an "anomaly' due to the sewage pipe installation.
Yeo said the project required the bridge off-ramp onto Riverside Drive to close for paving.
That meant they "had to more or less divert three lanes of traffic into one."
Some drivers said they were stuck in traffic for 30 minutes. Another said it made running errands surprisingly stressful.
"It's hard because there was a lot of moving parts for me yesterday. I had to run an errand for my mom, and then pick her up, and get her to a place that was closing at 5," said Brianna Hughes.
"When you've only budgeted enough time to do all that in 15 minutes before that business closed, any extra waiting time made for a little bit of panic."
And as work on the bridge's new sewage pipe wraps up, a new project is underway — the Active Transportation Corridor.
But for people like Brenlee Brothers who commute into Charlottetown, predicting how long it will take her to get to work is a challenge with all the construction.
"Obviously I want to be on time," said Brothers. "I want to be able to have a seamless commute to work in the morning.
"It's just ... unpredictable, we want to make sure our staff gets here on time. But you can't really plan for it."
Extra 10 minutes
According to Yeo, however, the impact bridge construction has on traffic flow will now be minimal since they only have one project left — the bike lane.
"Give yourself an extra five or 10 minutes with construction going on. But we won't delay traffic very much with the reversing the lanes every day," said Yeo.
"So there'll be two lanes coming into Charlottetown that will be open. And two lanes going into Stratford in the afternoon and early evening."
Yeo said the work on the bike lane is expected to be finished by the new year. And no major projects are currently planned for the Hillsborough Bridge.
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With files from Steve Bruce