Construction on the Sellwood Bridge is nearing an end after five years of commuting headaches for drivers and cyclists.

The state's busiest bridge sees more than 30,000 cars a day, but even during off-peak hours, headlights and bumper-to-bumper traffic are all you can see for the next three miles of the bridge.

"It's one of those things where you have to get used to it; it's like a bad relationship," said Seth Matasar, a small business owner.

For five years commuters put up with a relationship with the Sellwood Bridge project. Just down the street from it is Portofino, Matasar's restaurant.

"It made things very difficult during the day and night even, especially on Fridays, it's definitely caused a lot of congestion up and down Tacoma Street, making it hard for people to come through the neighborhood," he said. "It's one thing to be on a highway at 5 p.m. but another thing to be on a local city street doing the same thing."

Rarely does Matasar have to go to the other side, but when he does, he says it takes him 45 minutes to get from one side of the bridge to the other. He doesn't attribute the congestion to construction but the traffic signal.

"There's 25 cars piling up just so those two cars can make a left and make a right. Seems silly to me."

Multnomah County plans to fix the problem by the end of November.

"The city is going to make some changes to reduce the north-south time so the east-west, which is the main route going to the bridge, will have more green time and we think that's going to improve traffic flow," said Mike Pullen, a spokesperson for Multnomah County.

Pullen says the project will wrap up by Christmas, but expect more traffic delays until then:

North and southbound center lanes on Highway 43 will be closed during the day.

The north bridge sidewalk will be closed until Wednesday, Nov. 13.

There will be no on-street parking west of Southeast Oaks Parkway on Nov. 18 after 6 a.m. Parking will reopen on Nov. 19.

Traffic signals for Southeast Tacoma and Southeast 6th will be turned off after 9 a.m. until the evening.

"We got about 90 years out of the old one so hopefully we'll get a hundred out of the new one," said Pullen.

In five years of construction, Pullen says the bridge has only closed for a total of 30 days.

Starting Dec. 5, TriMet buses will begin crossing the bridge, bringing a new route for Bus Line 99-Macadam/McLoughlin, connecting to Lake Oswego bus lines, John's Landing and OHSU aerial tram.