Halifax suffering from gridlock following accidents

An accident or vehicle breakdown on any of the major routes in Halifax can often cause traffic chaos.

Getting around Halifax takes good planning and, often, a bit of luck. An accident or vehicle breakdown on any of the major routes can cause traffic chaos.

“We are very vulnerable to any kind of incidents that are creating major traffic issues, particularly gridlock,” says Ashan Habib, a traffic planning professor at Dalhousie University.

The latest example happened mid-afternoon Thursday when a truck carrying a load of rocks drove off an overpass in Bedford, crashing onto Highway 102 below. The accident closed both inbound lanes and one outbound lane.

“The city just came to a halt for hours and that’s not productive, it’s not beneficial,” says Pam Lovelace, councillor for Hammonds Plains-St. Margarets.

Despite being a member of the Joint Regional Transportation Agency, Lovelace says the city's hands are tied when it comes to changes to certain infrastructure in the municipality.

“We have a joint jurisdiction between the provincial government. They manage the highways and half of the roads in the municipality are provincial and so for the municipality we have very limited jurisdiction,” Lovelace says.

Bedford-Wentworth Councillor Tim Outhit says his constituents are growing frustrated by the increasing congestion during their commute.