After seeing a short Omaha World-Herald story, excerpted below, I was puzzled for a minute. However, the story has mixed up the bridge across the Missouri River and bridges across Interstate 29, which got that exact new configuration last week.
Westbound lanes of the $140 million bridge opened late Thursday. All summer, traffic had been diverted onto two eastbound lanes on one side of the bridge, said George Feazell, a district engineer for the Iowa Department of Transportation.
The Lincoln Journal-Star writes as if the new bridge has not opened, and a WOWT story from earlier this month clearly showed the bridge wasn’t being used. Either way, it is scheduled to be open to regular traffic tomorrow afternoon.
UPDATE: So that’s why the ribbon cutting is so early: Gov. Branstad is due to speak at the Iowa Tourism Conference in Council Bluffs at 11:30. (Although why one had to come before the other, I do not know, unless there are people attending the event who are also involved in final preparations for opening.)