Welcome to The Coast's ongoing coverage of the Big Lift. Get comfortable, we're going to be here for a while.
For the next 18 months, Halifax and Dartmouth are going to have to get acclimated to reduced use of the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge as significant and necessary repairs aim to extend the life of the 60-year-old behemoth.
That means closing down bike and pedestrian lanes starting in June. Cyclists and walkers will need to use specially-arranged shuttles until December, 2016. The bridge will mostly remain open to vehicular traffic, but starting in August it will shut down completely overnight, from 7pm to 5:30am. There will be 12 weekends over the course of the 18-month project where the bridge is entirely closed off. And, it'll be noisy. Construction work won't be complete until September of 2017. This is our new normal.
Plenty of people will be covering all facets of this project, and we're one of them. Any questions about the project's scope or details? Send 'em our way. Your commute is about to become two hours longer? Let us know! Not going downtown anymore because crossing the harbour at night is impossible? Write us a Bitch. Most importantly, anyone (Halifax Transit, Halifax Harbour Bridges, HRM) who's messing up, we want to know.
We're all in this together.
