There are quite a few signs along the Bridge of Nations.
Southbound motorists currently face 17 construction-related signs, which are in addition to the regular permanent signs.
“There’s a fairly large number of signs there, and that is something that we do keep on our radar,” city acting manager of project services Stephen Holmes told Sudbury.com.
“The factor we would fall back on is that vehicles aren’t travelling at a high speed, so that combined with the fact that the traffic control is relatively simple to negotiate.
“I’m comfortable with the messaging that we want to get out in the public with the communications signs combined with the contractor’s traffic control signs.”
Some of the signs were automatically erected by the contractor, and are required by the Ontario Traffic Manual for temporary conditions related to bridge rehabilitation work.
Several signs on top of those mandated by the province were put up by the city to communicate specific messages.
These signs include a few advertising the project’s timeline, with signs reading, “All traffic reduced to one lane in each direction from Apr. 3 - Oct. 31, 2023.”
Other signs read, “Move for emergency vehicles after bridge.”
This is the second draft of the emergency vehicles signs, with an initial version deemed too wordy. The new signs are more concise, with larger fonts than the originals.
The signs didn’t come in response to any incidents on the bridge, Holmes said, clarifying that they came as a proactive means of addressing a concern expressed to them by emergency services.
“If people hear the siren and don’t have anywhere to move over, occasionally the driver panics and stops dead and the emergency vehicle gets stuck,” Holmes said, adding that although the signs don’t entirely eliminate the potential for problems, they serve as a good reminder.
These communication signs, printed in English, are all followed by French-language counterparts.
The northbound lanes also include a sign indicating where motorists should employ a zipper merge, which is where two lanes narrow to one, with motorists in the ending lane encouraged to merge at the end of their lane, “rather than pulling into one long line of traffic,” Holmes said.
The southbound lanes don’t include a zipper merge sign because it was less of an issue there than along the northbound lanes, which tend to back up for longer stretches along a single lane of traffic, Holmes added.
A complete rundown of the construction-related signs affecting southbound traffic are, in order, as follows. They begin outside of Tom Davies Square. A similar collection of signs face northbound traffic:
- White sign with red text reading: “All traffic reduced to one lane in each direction from Apr. 3 - Oct. 31, 2023”
- French version of the previous sign
- Orange construction ahead sign
- White sign with red text reading: “Move for emergency vehicles after bridge”
- French version of the previous sign
- Orange construction sign, featuring a worker with a shovel
- Orange sign indicating the left lane is ending ahead
- White sign with red text reading: “Move for emergency vehicles after bridge”
- French version of the previous sign
- White sign with two vehicles next to one another, crossed out in red, indicating there should be no passing
- White sign with red text reading: “All traffic reduced to one lane in each direction from Apr. 3 - Oct. 31, 2023”
- French version of the previous sign
- Orange sign indicating the left lane is ending ahead
- An orange sign with lights encouraging people in the left lane to merge right
- White sign with red text reading: “Move for emergency vehicles after bridge”
- French version of the previous sign
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
