Traffic delays near Hillsborough Bridge will last long into the summer

Traffic delays on Grafton and Water streets in downtown Charlottetown will likely continue over the next few months as work continues on the Eastern Gateway infrastructure project.

The project is a joint venture between the province and the city. It will connect Water Street to Grafton Street through the Charlottetown Event Grounds, as well as rearrange the traffic patterns that get drivers on and off the Hillsborough Bridge, which forms part of the Trans-Canada Highway.

The whole point is to ease the flow of vehicles through the area, especially at the morning and evening rush hours.

For weeks now, the work has been causing traffic delays in the area, pretty much the only way for commuters to cross the bridge into Stratford and communities beyond it.  

"The ruts are terrible, the dust is terrible, and the traffic is very slow, especially coming home from work," said commuter Sterling Schnatz.

"I make sure I head into town, if I am doing shopping, around one, two o'clock. After four it's ridiculous because there are just too many cars and too many cars trying to come over the bridge."

Scott Adams, Charlottetown's manager of public works, said the work is still on track to be finished by Aug. 15, despite some snags along the way.

"There's always some surprises," he said.

"We found a few surprise old lines that were associated with the old tank farm back in the day. They were decommissioned way back when that farm was decommissioned, but they were under the road and in our way. So that took a bit of time, to remove those."

Adams said the city has asked the contractors involved to minimize traffic disruptions as much as possible during peak traffic hours. 

"It is a major entrance point into the city and handles a lot of traffic, especially during those peak hours of the day. So, even a small stop in traffic of 30 seconds can have a major ripple effect. So we do apologize."

He said once the project is finished, traffic flow in the area will improve.

As a side benefit, the work includes improvements to the drainage system, so the area should be less prone to flooding during and after heavy rain, Adams said.