The Don Kardong Bridge, a connector on the east side of downtown for Centennial Trail users to reach Gonzaga University and Riverfront Park, will reopen ahead of schedule on Friday after a seven-month, $3.4 million overhaul.

“This is a really vital link,” said Loreen McFaul, executive director at the Friends of the Centennial Trail nonprofit. “In terms of the Centennial Trail, it’s right in the center.”

The span, originally built in the 1920s to carry train traffic over the Spokane River, has been radically transformed, with a new concrete deck to replace the aging wood and steel that would become slippery during the winter . Gone, also, are the triangular trusses that rose from the previous bridge’s deck, which is now protected by new guardrails and illuminated by a new lighting system.

The bridge was last restored in 1988, when it was renamed for Bloomsday founder and champion of the Centennial Trail Don Kardong.

The project, paid for chiefly with $2.9 million in funding from federal COVID-19 stimulus dollars, was originally slated for completion in April, said Fianna Dickson, communication manager for Spokane Parks & Recreation. Other partners include the Friends of the Centennial Trail group, Gonzaga University, the University District Public Development Authority, the Lilac Bloomsday Association, the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office and the Spokane Bicycle Advisory Board.

Garco Construction, the main contractor for the bridge rehabilitation, has completed the structural work on the bridge early, and the city wanted to ensure users would have access to the bridge as soon as possible.

“Because the access could be opened sooner, we wanted to do that as quickly as possible,” Dickson said.

Fencing and barriers surrounding the bridge will be removed in time for commuters, joggers and cyclists to use the bridge Friday morning, Dickson said. The city estimated at the time of its closure that about 160,000 people a year used the bridge.

Spokane City Councilwoman Lori Kinnear said the bridge was not just important to the Gonzaga community, but the Logan Neighborhood and trail users trying to get to downtown.

“Our trail system is a major economic driver in our city,” Kinnear said. “That gets totally missed in the conversation.”

Additional features, including signs acknowledging funding partners and the incorporation of Miracle Mile medallions that had been pried from the trail in theft attempts in recent years, will be finished this spring, Dickson said.

The medallions were originally sold for $100 each and encased in concrete along the trail, some memorializing loved ones. Plans are still being finalized about what that will look like between the Friends of the Centennial Trail and Spokane Parks & Recreation, but McFaul said incorporating their messages into the new bridge was a priority.

“This is more than a medallion to many people,” she said.

A ceremony is planned for the spring to celebrate the bridge’s reopening when more people will be using the span, Dickson said.

The improvements to the bridge are expected to extend its life another 50 years. Crews also repaved the approaches to the bridge on both ends and replaced roughly 100 feet of damaged Centennial Trail near the Riverpoint Condos, Dickson said.

The Friends of the Centennial Trail group, which oversees the 37 miles of the trail extending from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene, initially kicked in funding of up to 30% of the initial design of the bridge. That was in June 2017.

McFaul said the completion of the bridge, five years later, is a culmination of those early fundraising efforts.

“Here we are,” she said. “It’s just delightful.”