The Cypress Creek Bridge reopened to westbound daytime traffic on April 9 a full 3½ days ahead of schedule.

The Virginia Department of Transportation had announced last week that the bridge would be closed April 8-12 between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. to remove the beams on three spans of the circa-1975 bridge that connects downtown Smithfield with the east end of town.

“We had a highly coordinated and efficient operations, and we were able to get all the beams removed and trucked in less than 2 days,” VDOT Area Construction Engineer Gautham Ramesh told town officials by email on April 9.

The bridge has resumed the traffic pattern that began in January to facilitate the bridge’s nearly two-year rehabilitation. A single lane of the bridge remains open to westbound traffic. Eastbound traffic headed out of downtown is being detoured to the Route 10 Bypass at its intersection with Main Street.