The McNab Road bridge in Pompano Beach, closed to drivers since April, is due back by November 1. The span it replaces went up in 1959, and the new one sits about four feet higher, which means more room for boats underneath and a crossing built to last the next half century. For anyone on the city's south side who has spent the past six months detouring around it, the end is now a matter of weeks.

What changes when it reopens

According to the city's October update, the bridge phase of the work is expected to open to traffic by November 1, as long as the weather cooperates and nothing unexpected turns up in the final stretch. The old structure had reached the end of its useful life, and the city describes it as functionally obsolete. Its replacement is engineered for a lifespan of 50 years or more.

The four extra feet matter in two ways. Boaters gain more vertical and horizontal clearance passing beneath, a real difference on a waterway where a low bridge decides which boats can get through. And a higher deck gives the crossing more margin against rising water over the decades it is expected to stand, which is the kind of thing nobody notices until the day it counts.

More than a bridge

The bridge is the headline, but the project covers McNab Road from South Cypress Road east to Federal Highway, and the whole corridor is being rebuilt at once. The city's project page lists what residents will find when it is finished.

New sidewalks and ramps built to ADA standards, so a wheelchair or a stroller can make the trip without hunting for a curb cut. Fresh paving. LED street lighting. Upgraded drainage and stormwater pipes. New space for people on foot and on bikes. Better bus stops and shelters. Raised medians and traffic calming features. New landscaping. Underneath it all, crews have been replacing water, sewer, gas and fiber lines and setting new FPL conduit and poles.

That last list explains why the work has felt long. Rebuilding a road from the utilities up means digging up most of it. The city reports utility installation is substantially complete, with concrete curbs and sidewalks about 90 percent done and the FPL work around 80 percent. The full McNab Road streetscape is scheduled to wrap up in December 2026, about a month after the bridge itself reopens.

Why it took a little longer

The city pushed the bridge date back in a September notice, pointing to a rainy season that would not quit. Concrete and paving schedules do not bend to a week of afternoon downpours, and this summer delivered plenty of them. The city says the delay is not expected to move the overall December finish.

The bridge and road closed on April 13. Through traffic has been sent around on Federal Highway and Cypress Creek Road, with Atlantic Boulevard to the north and 62nd Street to the south as the other ways across. Residents and businesses along the corridor have kept access the whole time, along with mail, trash pickup, deliveries and buses. Boaters had their own brief interruption in late July, when the waterway under the bridge closed to navigation for ten days during construction.

Paid for by a 2018 vote

The bridge is one of the projects Pompano Beach voters put on the list when they approved the G.O. Pompano! bond program in 2018, and replacing it was named a priority from the start. The city has been working through that list for several years, and a crossing that carries daily traffic across the south end of town is about as visible a result as a bond program gets. H.A. Contracting Corp. is listed as the contractor on the job.

What it means for your drive

If McNab Road is part of your daily route, early November should give you back the direct path between Cypress Road and Federal Highway, with a smoother road and better lighting on the far side of it. Expect some finishing work along the corridor through December, the stretch when landscaping, final lighting and the last sidewalk sections usually go in. Walkers and cyclists, who had the least to work with on the old road, may notice the biggest change of anyone.

The reopening date still depends on the weather, so it is worth checking the project page before you change your commute. But after more than six decades on the old span and half a year without one, south Pompano Beach is close to having its crossing back, taller and built for the long haul.