All lanes of the Biloxi Bay Bridge and all traffic lanes on U.S. 90 from the bridge to Interstate 110 will be open by April 7.

“MDOT will open that section of Highway 90 the same time we open the lanes of the bridge,” Kelly Castleberry, district area engineer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation, said Thursday.

Coast motorists have been waiting on the openings since Hurricane Katrina smashed the bridge on Aug. 29, 2005.

The three westbound lanes from Ocean Springs to Biloxi will open and drivers will be greeted in Biloxi with new traffic lanes all the way to I-110. On April 7 all the remaining barriers in the eastbound lanes of the bridge will come down and all six lanes will be open to traffic, along with the newly paved eastbound lanes of U.S. 90 from the Beau Rivage to Isle of Capri casinos.