After two and a half years of near-daily gridlock on Whitemud Drive in southwest Edmonton due to road construction, the light at the end of the tunnel — or bridge, actually — is near.

This past weekend, the newly expanded and upgraded eastbound Rainbow Valley Bridge reopened to traffic.

That bridge had been closed for just over a year, as part of Stage 2 of the Terwillegar Drive expansion project, and came after the westbound bridge underwent the same upgrade work.

In February 2024, the westbound lanes of the Whitemud over the north bridge were closed and two-way traffic was redirected to the eastbound lanes on the south bridge.

During that time, the city rehabilitated and widened the north bridge to four lanes plus shoulders and added a new pedestrian/cyclist bridge beside it.

Last August, the city shifted traffic over to the completed bridge and began similar construction work on the eastbound span.

That work is now largely finished, marking the completion of major bridge work for Stage 2 of the Terwillegar Drive Expansion project.

Three eastbound lanes are now available on Rainbow Valley Bridge. There are still some traffic reductions on the westbound side, with two lanes open between 122 Street and 142 Street (over the bridge), increasing to three lanes after the turnoff to Terwillegar Drive southbound.

Once the full project is completed this fall, the city said the widened bridges will provide four lanes of traffic in each direction.

Landscaping and site restoration work will continue through 2027, the city added.

The Terwillegar Drive Expansion project started in 2021 and involved upgrading Terwillegar Drive to an expressway instead of a light-free freeway, which would have cost more.

The work at the Whitemud also included adding an new 142 Street pedestrian bridge linking the Brookside and Bulyea Heights neighbourhoods, as well as a multi-use pedestrian bridge adjacent to the Rainbow Valley vehicle traffic bridges.

Phase 3 of the project includes further road widening, upgrades to the Terwillegar Drive interchanges over Anthony Henday Drive (already underway) and adding dedicated transit lanes and a shared-use path.

The six-kilometre expressway project is expected to be finished in 2028.

The city was initially planning in 2017 to expand the road into a freeway, as the road was built in the 1980s with future free-flow in mind.

However as the estimate cost exceeded $1 billion, city council in 2018 scaled back the plan to an expressway with the existing light-controlled intersections remaining in place.