CLEVELAND, Ohio -- One of the most storied bridges in Northeast Ohio, in its fifth reincarnation, will slide slowly across rollers onto a barge on the Cuyahoga River and be floated into place early Monday.

The truss span of the Columbus Road Lift Bridge has been under construction since early 2013 at a site just west of the Carter Road Bridge in the Flats. It's a near copy of the rusted, deteriorated span it's replacing, which was cut away from supporting towers last June and scrapped. Cuyahoga County is overseeing the $31.4 million project.

Here's the path of Monday's "float-out" of the rebuilt Columbus Road Lift Bridge.

The new span – the lift part of the bridge that moves up and down to clear the way for boats and barges – was built by American Bridge Co. at its fabrication plant in Coraopolis, Pa. It was hauled in sections to Cleveland, where crews have riveted together, wired and painted the 242-foot structure -- forest green -- in preparation for next week's "float-out."

The bridge is expected to open to traffic sometime in mid-October. It carried an average of 6,300 vehicles a day, including 253 trucks, before it closed.

The float-out at first was scheduled for mid-April. But it requires closing a section of the Cuyahoga River, and the date got pushed back as the Coast Guard juggled river closures for the Ohio Department of Transportation's Inner Belt Bridge project, river dredging and allowing iron ore to get to the Arcelor Mittal steel plant, after an iced-up Lake Erie delayed shipments.

The first floor of the new bridge has the galvanized steel grid decking that carries vehicles. Above the decking is a 220-square-foot operator's house for the person on duty to run the bridge. Vessels going up or down the river radio when they need the bridge lifted. The operator's house is staffed around the clock.

On the third level, the "upper chord," is the machinery room. It houses two 175-horsepower motors and other equipment that reels in and spools out 16 cables that run through a pulley system to the massive counterweights in the towers on each side of the river.

The counterweights, mostly concrete blocks, equal the weight of the lift span, so that as the bridge rises, the counterweights descend, like a scale or seesaw.

The bridge is headed a half–mile downriver to Columbus Road, where it will be bolted to steel towers on either side of the river. The towers and concrete piers they sit on have been overhauled.

Workers jacked up and replumbed the towers and replaced some of their structural steel parts. They built new stairs and platforms. They patched the piers and replaced fenders below the water line. New barrier and warning gates and new street lights were installed. Sidewalks on each side of the bridge deck were redone.

Though work to move the truss span begins at the crack of dawn Monday, it could take until early afternoon to inch it forward using "self-propelled modular transport" units – four rows of giant specialized rubber tires that will ease the nearly 2 million pound bridge onto a waiting barge.

If you want to watch, Cuyahoga County suggests you go to a designated viewing area next to Merwin's Wharf Restaurant in the Flats. The restaurant is on the east bank of the river at 1785 Merwin Avenue.

The new bridge's design matches the character of the 1940 structure it replaces. But items throughout have been upgraded. The trusses are the same configuration but made of a higher grade steel than before. The three layers of paint are lead free. The operator and machinery houses are larger.

Cuyahoga County had closed the former Columbus Road bridge in May 2013, after inspections showed serious problems, including floor beams and gusset plates that were rated critical, meaning they no longer functioned as designed. The inspection said the bridge's paint was in "failed" condition, and its lifting components were poor.

This copy of an engraving shows the first Columbus Street Bridge, which carried horse and buggy traffic when it opened in 1836. The image is from the book "A History of the City of Cleveland: Its Settlement, Rise and Progress 1796-1896," by James Harrison Kennedy.

The Columbus Road Bridge is steeped in Cleveland history.

It opened in 1836, the first permanent bridge across the Cuyahoga River, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. It promoted commercial development in Cleveland at the expense of Ohio City and led to the "Bridge War" between the cities. Travelers could bypass Ohio City instead of using an existing floating bridge that connected the towns.

The entry goes on: "The Columbus St. Bridge was built for $15,000 by a group of real-estate speculators, led by Jas. S. Clark, who were developing Cleveland Ctr., a commercial district at Ox Bow Bend in the Flats. It provided a direct route to Cleveland Ctr. from the Medina & Wooster turnpike (Pearl Rd.)...

"Rallying to the cry of "Two Bridges or None," west siders resorted to various forms of retaliation, including an ineffectual powder explosion. On 31 Oct. 1836 a mob of Ohio City residents armed with guns, crowbars, axes, and other weapons set off to finish the destruction, only to be met by Cleveland Mayor John W. Willey and a group of armed Cleveland militiamen. Three men were seriously wounded in the ensuing riot before the county sheriff arrived to end the violence and make several arrests."

Courts eventually resolved the dispute by ruling that there would be more than one bridge crossing the Cuyahoga River. The Columbus Road bridge stayed, and the current project is the fifth time it's been rebuilt.

Plain Dealer Researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this report.