ANNOUNCED FRIDAY AT 3 P.M.: Westbound lanes of Interstate 59/20, closed for a year for rebuilding of $700 million-plus of bridges and more, open Friday, Jan. 17, 2020, at 9 p.m. The rest of the roadway will open on Sunday evening, ALDOT East Central Regional Engineer DeJarvis Leonard said.

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It will be clusterstuck no more. The Alabama Department of Transportation is preparing to open the new Interstate 59/20 bridges across the Magic City -- a $700 million project that is finishing early -- by Jan. 21. They won’t tell the exact time or date, so far.

The project, funded by ALDOT, the Federal Highway Administration and the Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization, started in 2015. The opening of the bridges completes Phase III of the project.

Traffic was diverted to Interstate 459 and surface roads all around one year ago.

“We are very excited that we are getting to a point where we can put traffic back on 59/20 through downtown Birmingham,” said ALDOT East Central Regional Engineer DeJarvis Leonard.

Leonard said the new bridges should be open by Jan. 21. Some work on the bridges remains, including striping, painting and installing signage above the road. Some of that work is dependent on the weather, he said.

The design of the new bridges should make them quieter and less congested during rush hour. Some features that work to relieve congestion include an auxiliary lane from Red Mountain Expressway and Interstate 65, officials say. This lane allows drivers traveling between those two highways to stay in the same lane when entering and exiting instead of having to merge with through traffic.

The bridges also feature 10-foot shoulders, which Leonard says will provide room for disabled vehicles.

“The congestion level should go down significantly,” he said.

As the project began one year ago, bridges and other ramps were destroyed then replaced with new bridges and ramps.

The contractor, Texas-based Johnson Brothers Corp., was given a deadline of March 21, 2020, to complete the bridges or face fines of $250,000 per day. With that deadline came an incentive: for every day the bridges were open before March 21, the contractor would receive a $250,000 per day bonus with a max bonus of $15 million.

Opening the bridges on Jan. 21 means the contractor will receive that $15 million bonus.

Mike Brown, operations manager for Johnson Brothers Corp., said his crew broke the world record time to complete a segment bridge as large as the I-59/20 bridges. It’s a claim impossible to verify.

“With the planning and execution, we should all understand that safety was never undermined. The inspection processes, the construction process and then the post inspection processes are so thorough,” Brown said. There was “no corner-cutting,” he said.

"That’s not what we do. We’re here to provide a project for the state of Alabama and the city of Birmingham that’s quality and I think we’ve done that.”

The old bridges were built more than 45 years ago and designed to accommodate 80,000 vehicles per day. Before they were torn down, around 160,000 vehicle were using the bridges daily. By 2035, this number is expected to increase to over 225,000 vehicles per day, ALDOT officials say.

Leonard said he expects the new bridges will last 100 years.

“Safety is No. 1.,” he said. “We did an in-house inspection of the bridge with independent inspectors who identified a few things that need to be done and we’re taking care of that. Once we put it in service, we will inspect it again to make sure it’s functioning in its capacity.”

He said all bridges have to be inspected every two years.

Any damage caused by excess traffic on other highways or streets under the bridges will be repaired by ALDOT, he said. Carraway Boulevard just past 12th Avenue will be resurfaced as part of the project. The exchange at I-65 and I-59 also will be resurfaced.

“By the end of next summer, you’ll see all of that complete,” Leonard said.

While the bridges should be open to traffic next week, work to complete the streetscapes and sidewalks underneath the bridges has not yet started.

CityWalk, the park planned for underneath the bridges, is expected by Fall 2021. Officials say they hope the park can serve as a connector for the communities on either side of the bridges. Some residents say the bridges have isolated neighborhoods and created a clear boundary between downtown and the neighborhoods.

On Friday, the Alabama Department of Transportation will hold a dedication ceremony.

Read full coverage of the I-59/20 bridge project.