This bridge will close Monday and come down starting Oct. 29. It will take weeks.

After more than a year of debate, the Jefferson Street bridge will close Monday and begin to come down starting Oct. 29.

But there will be no dynamite or dramatic explosions.

The bridge will be taken apart and carted away over five to six weeks starting on the High Street side, city officials announced Wednesday. Then work will begin on the Main Street side, which will take another three to four weeks.

Message boards alerting motorists to the bridge’s destruction were placed on the bridge this week. More message boards will be placed on Main and High streets to alert motorists of the bridge closure starting next week.

Light poles on the bridge will also come down starting Monday, city officials said.

The alternative route for westbound traffic on both Main and High streets is the Oliver Lewis Way bridge. Eastbound traffic on Main Street should take Broadway.

The decades-old bridge is coming down to make room for the proposed $241 million expansion of the Lexington Convention Center. A proposed 10-acre Town Branch Park is also planned for the area where the bridge now sits.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted last week to take the bridge down after debating the bridge’s fate since September 2017.

This story was originally published October 17, 2018 at 3:12 PM.