The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) in St. Catharines, Ontario, was closed in both directions to facilitate the demolition of the Martindale Bridge from midnight on Saturday, October 17 to 10am on Sunday, October 18. All QEW traffic was diverted onto detour routes. The QEW has an AADT of approximately 66,400 vehicles at Martindale Road, and an hourly volume of approximately 1,800 vehicles from Saturday midnight to Sunday 10:00am. This is a particularly unique location given the limited parallel routes for crossing the Welland Canal and other watercourses. Due to the magnitude of the closure, a detailed Traffic Management Plan and Communications Plan were developed to ensure road users were provided ample advance notification and guidance to safely and efficiently navigate around the closure, or change their trip in space or time. To monitor the effectiveness and performance of the planning activities and detour routes, travel time and traffic volume data were collected using in-vehicle Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) data loggers, as well as, in-pavement Inventory Count Management Station (ICMS) detection loops. The analysis showed that the communications plan achieved a 38.9% reduction in volume from the area. There was no delay, or very little, on any of the detour routes. Detour routes were chosen because of their available residual capacity. During the QEW closure, police officers were used to increase the capacity at signalized intersections for the detoured traffic. All lanes of the QEW opened on schedule as well as the traffic management plan and communications plan were extremely effective in detouring traffic with minimal or no delay.
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