Crews finish weekend work on I-35E 14 hours ahead of schedule

The north and southbound lanes of I-35E, south of Downtown Dallas are back open. Crews finished construction well ahead of schedule.

Construction workers spent Saturday night removing the 8th Street bridge and were able to quickly remove the rebar and rubble, beating the deadline by 14 hours.

Just after 9 P.M Saturday TxDot crews began chiseling away the 8th Street overpass across I-35 in Oak Cliff. The goal was to remove the overpass so interstate lanes can be widened.

It's all part of a $660-million expansion of I-35e called the southern gateway project. In order to do the work, all of the main lanes of I-35E north and southbound had to be closed and the traffic was diverted to the service roads.

The Sky 4 tower camera showed massive traffic backups earlier Sunday that caught drivers like Anthony Arizpe off guard.

"It was pretty bad man!  It felt like it was never going to end, I know they closed the highway, so you know it was bad trying to get back to San Antonio and that delayed us by like two hours," he said.

The project spokesman says it may be another six months before these lanes in Oak Cliff will have to be shut down again and that will be to replace the 8th Street bridge back over the interstate after the lanes have been widened. The southern gateway project started in February of this year and is expected to be completed in late 2021.