Highway sign collapsed in Borden-Carleton after vehicle hit it, officials say

Traffic was backed up on the Trans-Canada Highway in Borden-Carleton for over an hour Tuesday night after an overhead sign structure collapsed onto the road.

P.E.I. RCMP posted on social media just after 7:30 p.m. that the highway was closed in both directions while crews worked to remove the structure from the road. 

Stephen Yeo, the province's chief engineer, said there is evidence that the sign was struck by a large vehicle. 

"We had staff go out and look at it this morning and it appears that one of the signs [was] crinkled up and there's grey paint on the bottom of the sign," Yeo said. "That [implies] that it was probably hit by some sort of vehicle that was too high for the overhead structure."

Emergency crews were on site to detour traffic from the scene after the structure fell, and RCMP posted just before 9 p.m. that the highway had reopened. 

There were no injuries reported, but Yeo said one vehicle may have been struck by the falling sign. 

The sign near the Albany Y directs eastbound drivers leaving the area around the Confederation Bridge toward either Charlottetown or Summerside. 

Yeo said it's unusual to have these structures collapse, since they're designed to withstand extreme weather. 

"They're designed for high wind speeds and… when Fiona was here, we didn't lose any overhead structures," he said. "So certainly they're well-designed and well-built to maintain structural integrity." 

The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure took the structure to a depot in Summerside to determine whether it can be repaired or has to be scrapped. 

Yeo said it will be "a number of months" before the sign will be replaced.