Construction of a temporary bridge is underway in Morell, P.E.I., as a major bridge replacement project gets underway.

The bridge over the Morell River on Route 2 is being replaced in a $7 million project that is expected to take more than a year to complete.

Work at the site started in mid-June and now crews are in place building a temporary bridge, which all traffic will be detoured onto by the end of September.

It will be able to handle two lanes of traffic — east and west bound — with a separate space for bikes and pedestrians.

Officials said things will be tight before the temporary bridge is complete and there may be delays as it is dropped down to one lane of traffic.

“There will be a period — five or six weeks or so — where we have to go single lane traffic on the east approach, the east side of the bridge,” said bridge engineer Neil Lawless with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure

“That’s to give us more room for construction equipment to construct a temporary bridge at that end of the site.”

During that time, a temporary traffic light will be installed to help direct vehicles.

The temporary bridge is the same one used in Hunter River during the bridge replacement project there over the past few years.

The portable sections are being trucked to Morell and reassembled. Crews are now putting steel pilings into the river on which it will sit.

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