Drivers annoyed that the Macdonald Bridge is closed for most weekends now have another reason to curse.
This wasn’t supposed to happen for another five years. But the bridge surface broke down early and no one yet knows why.
The bridge is currently undergoing an expensive repaving that will cost over $2 million. It also means one lane will be closed to drivers in the evenings and the bridge will be closed off altogether most weekends during the summer.
The bridge surface was last paved in summer of 2004 and was supposed to last 10 years. It only made it through half of that.
“It did wear out sooner than expected,” Bridge Commiss-ion President Steve Snyder said yesterday.
“We’ve asked to have some tests done to try to figure out what the reason was.”
Those tests will be conducted over the next week. In the meantime, the commission is going with a new paving formula this time around.
“This is a different type of wearing surface. This is more like the conventional wearing surface you’d see on a roadway somewhere. So it’s going to be about two inches thick and we believe a 15-year life is what it should provide us,” Snyder said.
The process involves stripping the bridge down to steel and then laying two separate layers of a waterproof membrane, then adding asphalt.
Progress
• Commissioner Steve Snyder said work is on schedule and the Halifax side could be wrapped up as early as next weekend.
