Two separate incidents -- a drawbridge malfunction and a crash -- wreaked havoc on Monday's morning commute for people trying to use the Hutchinson River Parkway to get where they needed to go.
A drawbridge malfunction at Bartow Avenue in the Bronx forced the highway to be closed in both directions in the area around 2 a.m., judging by the tweets of exasperated drivers who said at 4 a.m. they had been waiting for two hours.
"Absolute gridlock, we’ve been waiting 2 hours now with absolutely no movement or clarity. I called 911 about an hour in, they said they were on it and had already received one previous call on the issue. An NYPD Traffic car rolled up about 20 min later. Since then, absolutely nothing," one wrote. "It is just complete disarray with no place to U-turn or get out, and everyone is hysterical beyond belief."
The reason for the malfunction wasn't clear, but the city's Office of Emergency Management started tweeting about the closure and suggesting drivers take alternate routes, around 4 a.m. Videos posted to social media showed cars stopped. Some still had their lights on, others were dark. And people were seen walking in between vehicles along the highway.
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It was pitch black out, too. Traffic started slowly inching along for some shortly before 5 a.m. after some had spent three hours "waiting idly in the queue." It wasn't clear from authorities when or if the issue was completely resolved.
The drawbridge wasn't the only hiccup on the Hutchinson River Parkway Monday morning.
A collision shut down the northbound lanes at the New England Thruway around 5:45 a.m. There was no immediate word on injuries. Get real-time transit updates from all your key commute sources right here.
