Saskatoon

Long weekend traffic jam angers Sask. cabin-commuters

A Prince Albert city councillor is apologizing for a hiccup in construction and traffic-flow planning along the Diefenbaker Bridge over the long weekend. People heading south on Highway 2 reported long lineups crossing the bridge.

Some drivers reported more than 2 hour wait on Highway 2 through Prince Albert

Commuters heading home from the May long weekend reported waiting more than two hours on Highway 2 passing through Prince Albert because of roadwork on the Diefenbaker Bridge. (Getty Images/Flickr Open)

The trip home for vacationers travelling from northern Saskatchewan lakes was a lot longer than expected this May long weekend.

Angry drivers took to social media after reporting a more than two-hour lineup on Highway 2 passing through Prince Albert. Construction crews cut traffic down to one lane on the city's only bridge for work on the pedestrian crossing.

"I'd like to apologize on behalf of our city," said Prince Albert Councillor Rick Orr. "It wasn't our intention to impede and wreck people's weekends. From our point of view we'll try and improve it and make sure there are things in place to move traffic best we can during construction."

Normally there would be two lanes travelling north and two lanes travelling south. For the entire weekend there were two lanes travelling north but the southbound lane was limited to a single lane. 

"We realized we were ill-prepared for the melee of traffic trying to merge into one lane coming south. We contacted our police and administration in public works and they got to work trying to rectify it," Orr said. "Unfortunately you have to put a plan together before you go out into that traffic before you can make things better."

Orr added, city council is having conversations about how to improve traffic flow. 

"I'd like to say that this is an anomaly but we've been going through this year after year. We have one river crossing and it has required a lot of maintenance over the last couple years."

Construction on the bridge is expected to finish in September.