Macdonald Bridge reopens almost 9 hours later than planned

The Macdonald Bridge has reopened in time for Friday's eveningrush hour, almost nine hours later than expected.

The gates reopened at about 2:15 p.m.

Halifax Harbour Bridges says the contractor, American Bridge Company, will not be permitted to close the bridgeagainuntil it can ensure there will be no delayed openings.

Steve Snider, the CEO of Halifax Harbour Bridges, saidthat means the bridge willremain open on Friday nightand 24/7 over the weekend until at least Tuesday night.

He says thebridge commission hopes to have a plan from the contractor soon.

"We are not planning on 40 weeks of doom," Snidertold CBC's Maritime Noon."They can use their experience from last night's work to help them refine their approach to doing the work. They can take a look at other ways of doing it."

Many drivers saidthe closure doubled the length of theircommute and causeddelays.

2.5 cm of clearance

Snider saidcrews had trouble getting the lifting gantry into place. It'sthe large yellow structure being used to lift the new bridge segments into place.It neededto move 20 metres along the span to prepare to liftthe next segment.

"This is a piece of work or exercise that once you start, you're committed to completing it," he said Friday afternoon before the bridge opened.

"They've encountered some difficulties, but we've been advised that hopefully within the next couple of hours they should have it in place and hopefully it will be out of the way."

He said part of the problem was movingthe dollies underneath the gantry because there is only about 2.5 cm of clearance.

He said crews had to re-level the gantry every time it hit a bump. Reattaching the gantry with pins posed additional challenges because of wind conditions, he said.

This is the first time the gantry has had to be moved during the project.

'We're very, very sorry this is occurring'

This kind of suspension bridge deck replacement has only happened once before at the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. Snider said the gantry being used on the Macdonald Bridge is different than the one used in that project.

• Macdonald Bridge bump causes problems for bus drivers, commuters

"We're very, very sorry this is occurring," said Snider.

The bridge had beenclosed nightly between 7 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. as part of ongoing work for the Big Lift project to replace the decking on the bridge.

Snider said the contractor has already factored winter weather into the work schedule and they're anticipating there will be nights when it's not possible to work due to poor weather.

The first deck segment associated with the Big Lift was lifted into place last weekend. However, contractors ran into delays and the bridge remained closed during Monday's busy morning commute for several hours.

The project, which has more than 40 weeks to go before it's finished,is expected to extend the life of the bridge by 70 years or more.