Monday morning marked the end of an era when toll booths were no longer present at the Macdonald Bridge for the first time in 70 years.
According to the CEO of Halifax Harbour Bridges, Tony Wright, traffic ran smoothly through the morning rush hour.
“We didn’t have any accidents. Traffic is flowing really well. We have a couple of tweaks to make …you know, as we adapt to the new configuration…but overall, so far so good.”
Wright says those involve some line painting on the MacKay and adjusting the cones to make things run a little smoother.
“We also have to finish the job here. So, there’s some more work to do at the Macdonald, but that’ll be over the next weekend or two weekends.”
He says the orange cones now up at the Macdonald are helping direct traffic
Photo: Jacob Moore/Acadia Broadcasting
Bit of a surprise
Removing the tolls off the bridges was a campaign promise from Premier Tim Houston.
Wright says it came as a surprise but already had most of the work done for future plans.
“We were developing a project to remove the plazas anyway and adopt all electronic tolling. So, a big portion of the work was already basically developed.”
Councillor David Hendsbee, CEO of Halifax Harbour Bridges Tony Wright, Councillor Tim Outhit Photo: Jacob Moore/Acadia Broadcasting
Councillor Tim Outhit says he was also taken aback by the decision but Houston’s reasoning behind it made sense.
“[Houston] had heard from people coming from outside of HRM to go to the hospitals, to go to a Mooseheads game, etc… they didn’t understand why they had to pay. They don’t have to pay anywhere else in Nova Scotia.”
Outhit says this includes things like the Canso and Pictou Causeway’s.
He adds, it will speed up traffic and they have already seen that on the first day.
MacKay next
Toll booths are still up at the MacKay, but it is free to cross both harbour spans.
Construction will shut down the Macdonald again this coming weekend, then it’s the MacKay’s turn.
Comments