East St. Tammany motorists traveling to the south shore will find their trip easier, faster and safer now that the Department of Transportation Development finally rerouted the former eastbound Twin Span lanes to westbound traffic Thursday afternoon.

The change comes a month after the DOTD opened one side of the brand new $803 million Twin Span to eastbound traffic. The new bridge will eventually replace the old Twin Span that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina four years ago. Both sides of the new span will be open in both directions sometime in 2011 according to the DOTD.

Thursday morning, work crews were busy removing barricades, painting stripes and making sure all traffic signs were pointing in the right direction on the now westbound span. For the past four years, westbound traffic has been using the part of the span that was the most damaged by the hurricane. The DOTD had to install temporary sections to connect the damaged sections of the bridge. As a result, traveling to the south shore has been slow, and a little scary for motorists. Also, the jury-rigged bridge could not handle trucks carrying 80,000 pounds, forcing trucks to take the long way around St. Tammany and use the Causeway to get across Lake Pontchartrain.

Because of the temporary sections, the DOTD had to make twice-weekly inspections of the bridge to make sure it was staying together under the load of so much traffic. This meant the closure of one lane during the inspections, slowing down traffic almost to a standstill.

That is a thing of the past now that the old eastbound span has been transformed into a westbound lane. Also, the speed limit on the old span was 45mph because of the jury-rigged sections. The new westbound lane will have a speed limit of 60 mph, making the trip to the south shore faster.

DOTD said the speed limit on the new eastbound lanes will also increase from 45 mph to 50 mph at the transition points on each end of the span. The main section of the bridge will still have a 60 mph speed limit.

Thursday’s traffic shift will also bring in another change. The DOTD said the Interstate 10 off-ramp to U.S. Highway 11 on the south shore will be closed until a new off-ramp is opened to traffic when the new Twin Span is completed in 2011.

In about a week, crews will start disassembling the old westbound span. They will leave about 2,000 feet intact on the Northshore to be used as a fishing pier by St. Tammany Parish.