Weekend maintenance work on Boling Bridge on Ga. 53/Dawsonville Highway over Lake Lanier is expected to finish Monday morning, ahead of schedule.

That is, "if the weather cooperates," said Randall Davis, district construction engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Crews will not work Friday, as they have, for the most part, since the project started Sept. 17.

Instead, work will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday and remain closed until 5 a.m. Monday.

As usual, the detour route is Ga. 369/Browns Bridge Road.

This weekend, workers will paint repaired sections of the truss system. They also will rework the bridge joints and stripe the bridge deck and approaches.

"That will leave only punch-list items to complete, and those can be handled during the day by closing just one lane of the bridge at a time," Davis said.

This will be the sixth weekend of maintenance work that has completely closed Boling Bridge.

The DOT had projected the work would take eight weekends, having set a Nov. 30 completion date.

The contractor, Massana Construction of Tyrone, "has worked diligently each weekend," Davis said. "Their work plan allowed several operations to occur (at the same time)."

The project has called for repairing damaged horizontal trusses and bridge joints and replacing concrete approach slabs to the bridge. The new approach slabs will be lowered about 5 inches.