Portion of I-77 Catawba River Bridge expected to reopen Friday

YORK COUNTY, S.C. — Part of the I-77 Catawba River Bridge in York County is expected to reopen Friday, three days ahead of schedule.

The project was supposed to wrap up by 5 a.m. next Monday, but officials told Channel 9 that cars will be driving on part of the new southbound side of the bridge by Friday.

Troopers are scheduled to do several controlled paces Friday afternoon to shift traffic back to normal before completely reopening the bridge. They’ll only go 5 miles per hour so backups are expected throughout the day.

On Saturday, they’ll reopen the northbound lanes before opening the rest of the bridge on Sunday.

Channel 9 got an exclusive look Monday as workers poured the last section of concrete for the bridge itself. They’ve had 200 people working on the project 24 hours a day -- so many people that the company booked two hotels in Rock Hill to house everyone.

The general contractor told Channel 9 they’re even working ahead to avoid another traffic headache once the bridge is done.

“We’re gonna try to finish up a few extra things while we’ve got the closure and going into this weekend and get some more stuff done so we can eliminate some night time lane closures after the bridge deck is finished and cleaned up,” said the CEO of United Infrastructure Group, Jim Triplett.

Those nighttime lane closures are to repave I-77 and repaint lines in the work zone. Triplett hopes to minimize that burden on traffic by doing some of it this week.

(WATCH: Here’s what drivers can expect while SCDOT replaces I-77 bridge in York County)

Here’s what drivers can expect while SCDOT replaces I-77 bridge in York County

Cox Media Group