(Radio Iowa) – After more than three years of construction, traffic is moving on the Iowa-bound lanes across the new highway bridge over the Mississippi River. The west bound lanes of the new I-74 bridge are open between Moline and Bettendorf. George Ryan is the manager of the bridge project. “The weather has cooperated much more in 2020, even with Covid and all the things that are going on…and they’ve made a lot of good headway on the river bridge, as well as on land and we’re happy to open this up.”

Eastbound traffic on I-74 into Illinois will move to the completed side sometime this winter, until the second span of the new bridge is ready next year. Construction on the one-point-two billion dollar project began in the summer of 2017. All lanes should be completed and open, including a bike lane, by late in 2021.