Macdonald Bridge Big Lift weekend work delayed due to wind

Halifax's MacDonald Bridge will be open this weekend, afterall.

The fourth section of the deck replacement was supposed to take placebetween Friday night and Monday morning but the closurehas been cancelled.

The change is being blamed on high winds earlier this weekand predictions of high winds again this weekend.

• Macdonald bridge's Big Lift project in Halifax explained

The job has beenpostponed until the weekend of Jan.9because a holiday break had already beenscheduled.

In order for this latest segment to be installed, workers have to replace thebolts on the hanging cables first.That has to be done from the blue cablecrawlers suspended above the bridge, which cannot be done safely in windy conditions.

"That work hasn't been able to be done, and as a result of that we're not able to replace the fourth deck segment this weekend," saidAlisonMacDonald, aspokesperson for Halifax Harbour Bridges.

She saidbetweenSunday night and Wednesday, crews hope to finish the cablework and be ready for the next full weekend of work.

Construction on the Big Lift will take a break over the holidays. There will beno daytime or overnight closures once the bridge opens at5:30 a.m. on Dec.24until 7 p.m. on Jan.3.

Bridge officials admitted earlier this week they aren't as far along asthey had hoped.The plan to is to replace all 46 deck segments by next fall.

At the current rate, just over half of them would be installed.

"We areanticipatingthat once we get the fourth [segment] in, and the fifth, that things are going to proceed on a quicker schedule than we've experienced so far," saidMacDonald.

She said in time, crews will be able to do a deck replacement in10.5 hours.

The chief engineer for the project remains optimistic that the process will speed up and the work will be done on time.