The long-awaited extension of Collins Road west to Highway 30 could hit a milestone by Thanksgiving. Right now, that’s the projected date to open half the $215-million dollar Highway 100 extension bypass.

The new bypass will loop about seven miles from where the road ends now at Edgewood Road to Highway 30. The section getting close to completion by the end of this construction season would allow traffic to go as far as F Avenue or Covington Road.

Drivers on that road west of Cedar Rapids have seen something new in just the last few weeks. After literally months of pushing to dirt shape the roadway, crews started to put down asphalt a few days after Memorial Day.

Bill Nielsen, a DOT senior construction technician, says there’s almost two miles of pavement ready to use now.

“They do about 3,700 tons a day when they’re running on the mainline. They put down a lot of asphalt in a hurry,” Nielsen said.

Steve Staebler, a DOT construction tech supervisor, said the piece of the bypass that’s most nearly complete was also the most complicated. That’s the first new, and not replacement, bridge to span the Cedar River in the Cedar Rapids area since I-380 opened through the downtown back in 1978.

The original timetable for the Highway 100 extension project called for the first half, about 3.5 miles, to open in 2017. But Staebler said with a little luck, the good news for drivers will come early.

“The weather plays a bit part in everything but if we get the asphalt laid down, the connections made and the bridge approaches and all the other incidental work we need we’ll try to get it done by Thanksgiving,” Staebler said.

The second half of the Highway 100 extension project, from Covington Road to Highway 30 is scheduled to open in the fall of 2018. The DOT is in the process of signing some of the major contracts now to begin the main work on phase two.