Halifax’s Angus L. Macdonald Bridge reopened Friday and residents were allowed to return home after crews successfully stabilized a crane at a construction site on the Dartmouth side of the harbor.

An evacuation order for Faulkner Street, Lyle Street, Windmill Road and Wyse Road was lifted Friday morning.

That area was closed shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday, when police issued a news release saying they were assisting the Department of Labor with a damaged crane in the Faulkner Street area.

Around 20 people from 12 nearby homes were evacuated from the area as a precaution. They received support from the Canadian Red Cross, which organized temporary accommodation.

The Macdonald Bridge was also closed, causing traffic problems across the region during rush hour.

Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Services and Halifax Regional Police remained on scene Friday morning to support workplace health and safety efforts.

Halifax Deputy Fire Chief Roy Hollett said work was taking place Friday to secure the crane to the building and base.

“What they do and how they make sure the crane doesn’t tip over is quite technical,” Hollett told the CBC radio show. Morning information Nova Scotia from the crane site Friday morning.

“Once the crane is stabilized and secured, we remove it and it’s left to the (labor department) and the crane company.”

Hollett said it was his understanding that crews identified breaks at the base of the crane on Thursday.

“When this happened, the crane was not stable,” he explained. “They shut down operations and that’s when everything started to escalate.”

He said crews worked through the night to stabilize the crane.

In a statement released Thursday, the Labor Department said it was closely monitoring the incident.

Three stop work orders were issued: one for the crane, a second to dismantle the crane once it is stabilized, and a third for evacuation and to ensure that no work takes place on site as well as two closed construction sites. by.

The department said no injuries were reported.

In a subsequent statement Friday, the department said the crane had been further secured and would be monitored while it was dismantled. This will be followed by an investigation into the cause of the incident.

The ministry also said all cranes in the Halifax Regional Municipality will be re-inspected in the coming days to ensure they have been examined by an engineer and meet provincial standards, which include inspections and mandatory certifications by an engineer once a crane is built and daily visual inspections by crane operators.

The name of the crane and the companies involved cannot be confirmed as the investigation is ongoing, the department added.

This isn’t the first time a damaged crane at a construction site has displaced residents in the Halifax area. In 2019, a crane collapsed the city’s downtown during post-tropical storm Dorian.