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The Morrison Bridge, which was closed all summer, will . Construction has been halted to allow for the lane openings, though it will resume during the first week of January.

The lanes open today, while foot and cycle access has already started. TriMet’s Bus Line 15 has been rerouted to the Hawthorne Bridge during the closure and will continue to use this alternate path to cross the Willamette River until construction is complete.

The multi-use paths on the north and south sides have during the construction, not to mention the massive extension of this steel grating replacement job . The bike lanes will remain open once the work restarts in 2012, but that glimpse of optimism was announced alongside news that the job is .

When the project began, the targeted completion date was November 2011. This $4.2 million project now has an unspecified spring 2011 delivery date, while total associated costs to updating the 53-year-old bridge have ballooned due to legal issues and delays.

The county and contractor have , making for an ugly situation out of what should have been a simple updating of one of the city’s most-traveled river crossings. The traditional construction moratorium between Thanksgiving and Christmas day that is upheld by the Portland Bureau of Transportation may have closed the window on wrapping up the Morrison Bridge project, or .

All things considered, the additional lanes during the holidays will help tens of thousands of commuters cross the Willamette. The best answer would have been the project getting delivered on time, but what Portland resident expects that?