Eighth Street Bridges to OPEN this Tuesday!

If Mardi Gras isn’t reason enough to party, celebrate this.

The Eighth Street bridges will be reopening this Tuesday. The bridges will be open to pedestrians starting at 9 a.m., and they’ll be open to vehicular traffic around 2 p.m., after a brief ceremony at the intersection of Eighth and Cherry Streets.

Steve Bridges — owner of three businesses which have been isolated by the bridges’ closure — probably summed up most people’s sentiments: “I don't care if they have a procession. Just give me my traffic back.”

The construction work still isn’t complete. Sealer will need to be applied to each bridge, probably later this spring or early in the summer. At that time they’ll close one bridge at a time to apply the sealer, and the other bridge will remain open.