A new $22 million bridge project extending Division Street in Nashville is set to open Monday to traffic, connecting areas in south downtown that have long been fragmented.

The project — several years in the works, spanning from former Mayor Karl Dean to Mayor Megan Barry's administrations — will run from 8th Avenue South, near the business establishments Frugal MacDoogal, Flyte and Pour House, to 2nd Avenue South.

Division Street currently stops near 8th Avenue, where it has historically been severed by CSX railroad tracks.

The new half-mile bridge, which will be a complete street with bikes lanes and sidewalks, has been billed as an important downtown connector, allowing easier access from Music Row, Vanderbilt, Belmont, Midtown, The Gulch to Rolling Mill Hill, the Lafayette neighborhood, and the Metro Fulton Campus.

“This bridge provides a vital link from the Gulch to SoBro, while also connecting to a number of other key points in the city,” Metro Public Works Director Mark Sturtevant said in a statement.

“This is why we need to continue to invest in our infrastructure and build more complete streets that accommodate and improve vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle access.”

According to the public works department, the bridge's landscaping won't be fully completed until mid-November.

Pedestrian-friendly amenities include a pedestrian plaza, wide sidewalks, and a buffered cycle track separated from the roadway. The project also includes LED lighting, including along the rails of the bridge.

Construction on the bridge and road extension began in early 2016, but was first pushed by Dean in 2013. The project's budget was to not exceed $25 million.

Nashville-based architecture firm Gresham, Smith & Partners led the project's designs while Bell & Associates Construction over construction.

Metro oversaw three property condemnations to complete the project. That included eminent domain proceedings against Greyhound Lines to acquire property the company owned near its bus depot on Lafayette Street.

The Division Street extension project — which project leaders boast will also lead to more infill development in the SoBro area — is considered Nashville's sixth complete street undertaken by either Dean or Barry.

Not far away from Division Street, Barry is also working toward another Dean-era bridge project aimed at better downtown connectivity — a much-debated $18 million pedestrian bridge connecting the booming Gulch and SoBro neighborhoods. The pedestrian bridge is slated to open in 2019, but construction hasn't started.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.