LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The deck of the new downtown bridge will soon be one piece and it will be ready for cars by January, officials say. 

Construction workers might have the best view of the progress on the downtown bridge, but it also might be the scariest. They work high over the Ohio River. Two walking buddies had a rare opportunity to talk to a construction worker on the ground.  

"We walk the Big Four Bridge, come over and see what progress they've made," said a man who only wanted to go by his first name, Lonnie. 

Even the Downtown Crossing spokesperson wanted to capture the progress with her camera.

"It doesn't take much imagination at this point to know exactly what the bridge will look like," said Mindy Peterson.

She says a lot of milestones come this fall. By the end of October, the deck will go all the way across.

"You see those gaps now, about every two weeks you get about 90 feet of progress," said Peterson. Then, the deck will be poured to get ready for traffic to hit the bridge in January.

The big yellow crane closest to the Indiana side will be going away in a few weeks. They don't need it anymore, now that the far tower on that side is done.

"They already have the stay cables installed," said Peterson. "When that (crane) gets removed, it just takes away one of the signs of construction, and makes it look much more finished and so that's going to give people an even better idea of what to expect." 

All 88 cables on the bridge will be in place in October. Crews are also working on the approaches from Louisville and southern Indiana.

You can view progress and concepts from the project's website here. A video takes you through the tunnels of the East End Bridge, which should be ready for traffic in October 2016. All blasting operations are expected to be complete for the East End Bridge by the end of 2015. Final lining and construction of the tunnel will also be finished by the end of the year.

The Downtown Crossing is set to open in January, but that is also when major construction on the Kennedy begins. All the work in the entire $2.6 billion project will be done by the end of 2016.

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