Topping out ceremony for the George V. Voinovich bridge

The final beam is raised for the "topping off" ceremony for the George V. Voinovich innerbelt bridge. June 27, 2016. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

(Gus Chan)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The eastbound George V. Voinovich Bridge, known as the Inner Belt Bridge, will reopen to traffic Sunday, Sept. 25.

The two lanes of traffic - one lane from I-90 and one lane from I-71 that have been rerouted to the westbound bridge - will reopen on the bridge, which is the second - and final - bridge in the massive Ohio Department of Transportation replacement project that began in 2011.

The final three lanes of are expected to open to traffic in October.

To commemorate the partial opening of the bridge, a ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 24 on top of the eastbound bridge. At that time, the bridge will be open to pedestrian traffic until noon.

The 3,918-foot-long bridge will remain under construction once the first two lanes reopen. There still is striping and paving work to be completed before the final three lanes will be able to open to traffic and the closed access points to the highway can reopen.

Once all five lanes of the bridge are reopened, only minor painting and lighting work will need to be finished before the bridge project is complete.

The first bridge - the westbound side - was completed in November 2013 and currently carries both directions of traffic on I-90 across the Cuyahoga River in and out of downtown.

The project is the largest bridge replacement effort in Ohio history and cost more than half a billion dollars to complete. The new bridges replace the 1959 truss bridge that previously supported the 140,000 vehicles that daily cross that stretch of I-90.