More good news for island residents tired of traffic jams and orange barrels on the 17th Street bridge.

The original completion date for repairs of 2028 – which was moved up by 15 months this past summer – now has been pushed forward again.

The Florida Department of Transportation says that, barring weather delays or other unforeseen occurrences, construction will be done by fall 2026, two years earlier than first projected.

That does not mean there won’t be more pain along the way.

To get the job done sooner, nighttime bridge closures that began last month will continue at least into November.

The next one is slated for Thursday, Oct. 23, between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Contractors will use that interlude to pour the concrete road surface on the eastbound side of the bridge near the island shore.

Additional similar closings will be necessary in November, FDOT officials said, but the exact dates have not yet been determined.

During closure, traffic will be routed along A1A and Indian River Boulevard to the Barber Bridge. Lighted directional signs will guide motorists. As of Oct. 1, the 17th Street bridge project was 75 percent complete, state officials said.

This year’s quiet hurricane season is one reason FDOT was able to speed up the construction process.

“Not just the weather here, but elsewhere, too,” said Ricardo Baraybar, senior engineer for the project. The accelerated project required Florida Power & Light to cut power to a major transmission line so crane operators could work faster without worrying about coming into contact with the high voltage line.

“As we all know, when there are storms anywhere in FPL’s service area across the southeast, their crews leave for extended periods of time,” Baraybar said. “Luckily, that was not the case this season.”

Also, the Vecellio Group, the West Palm Beach-based contractor for the project, accelerated its own work schedule, bringing in additional subcontractors and crew members for night work, Baraybar said. This includes subcontractors for asphalt work, concrete sealing, and installation of signage and pavement marking.

In addition, contractors have avoided the kind of supply chain issues that can mire down major projects, because FDOT stockpiled the needed materials and supplies well ahead of time, said project administrator Philip Lyon.

“We were very fortunate at the beginning of the project,” Baraybar added. “We procured a lot of materials that typically require a long lead time and stored it away to avoid any supply chain problems that might arise.”

It’s also possible that FDOT felt some heat from residents, public officials and the media to complete work on the bridge, which has been a construction site for more than five years, due to back-to-back FDOT repair projects.

Completed in 1979, the 4,700-foot-long concrete and steel bridge was nearing the end of its projected life when problems were detected. The structure was found to be in critical condition in 2018 and deemed structurally deficient in 2020.

FDOT made the decision to repair the bridge instead of replacing it, which may have saved as much as $100 million, but also stretched out the construction timeline.