Province says it's trying to do its part to cut down on Hillsborough Bridge traffic tie-ups

With two levels of government both plugging away on a major roadwork project in Charlottetown, it's been what one official calls "a balancing act" to keep traffic moving as smoothly as possible.

The city has been working for months to complete a realignment of Water Street to cut through the Charlottetown Event Grounds and onto Grafton Street.

Meanwhile, the province recently started work to reconfigure the right-turn ramp onto Riverside Drive from the end of the Hillsborough Bridge. 

It's all led to kilometres-long traffic backups on the Stratford side of the bridge on recent mornings, something the province said it's working to solve. 

"There was a couple of rough days, but we have the contractor working in a better manner that doesn't stop traffic. [Thursday] morning it flowed quite well," said Stephen Yeo, chief engineer with P.E.I.'s Department of Transportation. 

"It is a construction site. We have the speed lowered, traffic is moving slower, so it is going to take people 10 to 15 minutes to get across [the bridge] so … leave a little bit earlier." 

The department waited until after Old Home Week in late August to start reconstructing the off-ramp in order to minimize traffic jams while the city crews continued their work.

The ramp coming off the bridge onto Riverside Drive and then the Charlottetown bypass highway will be realigned, improving the radius of its curve and leading to better traffic flow. Yeo expects that portion of the work to be completed in the next three to four weeks. 

The province will not close the ramp to through traffic at any point during the construction, Yeo said. 

"We have a lot of traffic flowing there every day," he said. "We never want to block that off or close it up because we know that backs up traffic for kilometres." 

He said two department staff drove across the Hillsborough Bridge from Stratford to Charlottetown on Thursday to test the traffic flow after the contractor made some adjustments to how they were getting trucks in and out of the site. The staffers were able to get across the bridge within 12 to 15 minutes, he said.

That may be little relief for those drivers who've been faced with inconsistent rush-hour travel times for months while commuting between Stratford and Charlottetown. 

"This construction, it could've been done in the evening. It doesn't make sense they're doing construction on the three major arteries in the town, which slows down everybody," said Summerside resident Ken Smith, whose Charlottetown-based job often requires him to travel to visit clients in Stratford. 

"I'm trying to find a way to rearrange my schedule with my clients now, just to make it easier for us all to get around."