The much-maligned Lions Gate Bridge bump has itself been bumped — at least for a while.
Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure crews spent nine hours overnight Sunday removing 4.5-centimetre-thick welded metal plates that were blamed for causing traffic chaos for North Shore commuters last week.
“The bridge is back to normal,” said Norm Parkes, executive director of highway operations for the ministry. “Pieces for (maintenance) of the joint were delayed and we decided, rather than just leave the bump there and not do any work, we took the bump away.”
The joint at the north end of the bridge had similar work done in January this year. The plate was an annoyance but didn’t result in the same problems as the one at the south end, Parkes said.
“We didn’t think it would be as impactful as it was. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have done it,” he said.
There is no timeline for when work on the south joint will restart, but Parkes said the engineers have gone back to the drawing board to come up with something better than the dreaded bump.
“We’ve tasked our engineers with doing exactly that – figuring out what an alternate cover will look like, and when is an optimal time to do the work?” Parkes said.
