New lane closing schedule for Bridge of the Americas
From January 16 to February 26 there will be a partial night time closure on the Bridge of the Americas, from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am.
The announcement was made a few hours after the Minister of Public Works (MOP) has promised that motorists would be given adequate advance notice of road closings or diversions but, early or late the news will ease the concerns of the scores of thousands of drivers who cross the bridge daily, to and from work.
The MOP, will close two lanes on the south side of the bridge and only allow for two-lane vehicular traffic on the north side. Outside of these hours, the bridge of the Americas will be open providing four lanes for vehicular traffic.. The night closures will not be made ??on Saturdays, it was also noted in a statement Sunday.
From to February 17- 22 the night time partial closures will be suspended because of the Carnaval celebration .
The Ministryindicated that the rehabilitation work will resume in 2012 with the installation of the work platform for painting the entire bridge structure. Because of these works and others, the MOP asked the community to watch for notices on the schedules of movement on the bridge. Then, when necessary traffic will be diverted onto the Centennial Bridge, where drivers can enter the city of Panama.
No information was released on the effect of the partial closings and night time work on the length of time to do the $80.7 million fixing, originally forecast at two years by the MOP and three years by the transit authority (ATTT).
