Thread: Repairs on the Bridge of the Americas Complicate Traffic Entering Panama City

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Repairs being conducted on the Bridge of the Americas, which crosses the Panama Canal and connects the interior of the Republic of Panama to the capital of Panama City, have reduced the capacity of the bridge down to only two lanes. In an effort to minimize the impact on traffic, the traffic division of the Panamanian National Police started an "operation" this morning, changing the direction of the flow of traffic every fifteen minutes. Apparently that wasn't such a good plan, because most of the traffic this morning wanting to cross the bridge were commuters coming from the interior towards Panama City, and there was almost no traffic to take advantage of the 15 minute windows in which flow was changed towards the interior. The police will execute this same "operation" this afternoon for the evening commute, and you can expect they will modify their plan somewhat. As an alternative, use the Centennial Bridge whenever possible. The repairs on the Bridge of the Americas are expected to continue through April 2009.
Copyright 2008 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.

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Drove across a couple of times in the last few weeks and it was surprisingly fast. Once on Saturday evening - going west. Took about 10 minutes and once on Saturday morning going into the city. That was just a slow drive but no stopping. What's it like in rush hour?

Thanks for all those interesting news!

I just remembered that we also crossed from the city going west on a Tuesday afternoon at around 5:00 about 3 weeks ago and it was a bit slow but not too bad - about 10 minutes again.