Brace for summer bridge closure: city officials

Fredericton's Princess Margaret Bridge is temporarily closing in five months, but the city is asking drivers to start preparing now.

Officials said motorists will face more traffic problems than they did last year, when the bridge was closed for five weeks. Officials had predicted traffic chaos in the run up to that closure, but drivers largely managed with few problems.

The city is closing the bridge for work again in June, but for more than three months this time.

Darren Charters, a city traffic engineer, said one factor that will worsen the effect this year is that the closure will overlap parts of the school year.

"Obviously when school buses are on the road, people are driving their children to school, etcetera, there's a lot more traffic on the streets. September is, in particular, the highest traffic month of the year," he said.

Councillor Bruce Grandy said the closure also spans most of the construction season. That means some key alternate traffic routes will be closed for road works as well.

"We'll try to schedule those around the various streets that affect the bridge closure, but invariably we're going to have conflicts on that," Grandy said.

The city said it will try to avoid construction closures and schedule some construction for weekends.

The Princess Margaret handles 20,000 vehicles a day, with a further 50,000 vehicles travelling across the Westmorland Street Bridge, Fredericton'sother span across the St. John River.