There’s good news for Prince George motorists coming Friday.
After nearly two weeks of being closed to southbound traffic, the John Hart Bridge is expected to be reopened Friday morning.
That should alleviate the long lines of traffic backed up during the morning rush that have extended north up Highway 97 as far as Bellamy Road.
The two southbound lanes on Highway 97 were closed on Oct. 9 to allow city crews to fix a sewer line that has been leaking into the Nechako River.
Drivers have been forced to exit the highway at North Nechako Road to cross the river using the Footballs Bridge to the west or the Carney Street Bridge crossing to the east.
The repair project is centred on the north side of the river. The eventual need for replacement of the sanitary forcemain that crosses the bridge span underneath was identified in 2019 when an inspection revealed reduced pipe thickness and deteriorating hanger components.
Work over the past two weeks was to install a permanent 1,300-metre bypass line that runs under the bridge starting from a lift station on Richard Road and continuing south to the intersection of Highway 97 and Fifth Avenue, where it will tie into an existing line.
For that work to proceed required the temporary removal of a portion of the bridge deck in the southbound lanes.
The bridge was widened from two lanes to four in 2001.
There were no new sewer lines installed on the bridge at the time of that construction, nor was there any work done to the existing sewer lines on the northbound lanes.
The sewer pipe being replaced was installed in 1977 and lasted until July 6, 1979, when a section of pipe that ran under the bridge fell off due to issues with the anchors that had been holding the pipe in place.
