I was annoyed at the back up in traffic on the approach to Fall River, Nova Scotia the last few days – at least till last Sunday when I was coming back to Halifax. It was kilometres long and took a good 3/4 hour to get past a highway construction site.

I was coming back to town after an engineering class reunion at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. The back up was there on my way out of town the previous Thursday – four days earlier.

This kind of back up was not necessary, and it was dangerous too. It was caused by the heavy, bumper to bumper traffic in the two inbound lanes reduced to one at the construction site. The two outbound lanes were light of traffic in the extreme.

I don’t know why one of the heavy traffic lanes wasn’t directed across a temporary gravel road across the medium to one of the light, outbound traffic lanes. It’s simple engineering and been done before in Nova Scotia. Also, why wasn’t some of the heavy traffic directed onto the old road into town at one of the exits up the road? It too has been done before.

Dangerous as well like I said. The 4×4 Yahoos had no trouble dropping down onto the gravel shoulder and tearing up to an exit well before they should. Increasing the dangerous situation even more. Then there was the gravel dust kicked up by the Yahoos that the rest of us had to breathe.

I’m sure this avoidable traffic jam was an element in any later accidents in the area in the days or weeks that the avoidable jam was there. Also the cause of coughing and difficult breathing for some drivers and passengers.

There are civil litigation and insurance claims waiting to happen in the built environment – just ask an engineer – and they were there for a time at Fall River.

(Posted by Eric E. Jorden, M.Sc., P.Eng. Consulting Professional Engineer, Forensic Engineer, Geotechnology Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, June 10, 2022. ejorden@eastlink.ca)