The rehabilitation of Hurricane Bridge is not totally complete, but the structure was  opened to two-way traffic Wednesday evening for the first time in nearly two years.
A ribbon cutting was held to commemorate the re-opening of the bridge Tuesday morning.
The original bridge, located where Highway 56 crosses the Caney Fork River channel on Center hill Lake, was built in 1949 and rehabilitated in 1977.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) awarded the bid to  refurbish the bridge for a second time to OCCI Incorporated at $26.9 million in Oct. 2010.
The company has until Oct. 31 to finish the project.
The structure is of the Warren deck truss design, and is 1,786.6 feet long.
While the previous deck width of the bridge was 43.9 feet, the refurbished structure will be slightly more narrow, but the change will have no effect on the width of lanes of travel, which will remain at 12 feet.
Officials have said that they hope to get at least 50 years service out of the bridge before it needs any further attention.
Meanwhile, construction has started on Sligo Bridge, which unlike Hurricane, is to be completely replaced.
Sligo, which provides passage across the lake on Highway 70, is constructed with five riveted Parker through truss spans.
The original Camelback bridge spans were replaced and elevated with the Parker spans in 1948 when the river was impounded for the building of Center hill Dam.
The 1,374.6 foot structure will be replaced with a a steel-plate girder bridge with a concrete deck.
The new bridge will have twelve-foot lanes and ten-foot shoulders
The old bridge will remain open to traffic during construction.
The project is expected to be completed by June 2016.
Massman Construction Company, based in Kansas City, Missouri, was awarded the bid fro the project at $38,903,917  in April.