The freeway extension that will shave minutes off many county residents' commutes will be here in a year.

Since2003, regional transportation agency San Bernardino AssociatedGovernments has been working on the remaining eight miles separatingthe current end of the 210 Freeway in Rialto from San Bernardino, whereit will connect with Highway 30. It has already completed more than adozen bridges and overpasses for the $313 million project, and pavingof the highways in between is well under way.

But one massive bridge is still under construction, SANBAGspokeswoman Cheryl Donahue said, a 558-foot span across Lytle CreekWash that, when complete, will contain nearly 4 million pounds of steeland be supported by 7-foot concrete pillars sunk 115 feet into theground.

That bridge should be finished by early spring, and all theremaining highway, lighted and striped, will be open to traffic byabout this time next year, Donahue said.

Recently, the work has even been on budget, with contractssigned two years back shielding the project from "the huge increases inconcrete and steel prices, with all the work going on in China,"Donahue said.

While construction has gone smoothly, however, the projectis a year behind its original schedule. The holdup was largelyenvironmental, with a year's delay before SANBAG could get theappropriate clearances and permits for the project.

In the area of the Lytle Creek Wash, the freeway's pathtraversed some of the same ground favored by the endangered SanBernardino kangaroo rat and the Santa Ana River woolly star, a plantwith lavender flowers.

Along with other environmental impact mitigation measures,Donahue said, crews staked out the construction areas in an overnightrat relocation operation, armed with live traps baited with bird seedand rolled oats. Fourteen kangaroo rats were caged and brought to asafer habitat.

With the freeway's completion next year, Donahue said, thearea's human inhabitants will also see a changed environment. Studiesand common sense suggest that the freeway will alleviate traffic on the10 Freeway, which runs largely parallel to the 210 extension.

It will also reduce congestion on north-south surfacestreets, Donahue said, because residents of the foothill communitiesalong the northern edge of the San Bernardino Valley will no longerneed them to get to a freeway.

Along with cars, Donahue said, her agency also expects thefreeway to bring money. Home prices usually go up when commutes areeasier, she said, and commercial areas adjacent to freeways tend toprosper.

"We'll see what it does for economic development in Rialto and San Bernardino," Donahue said.

Jeff Horwitz can be reached at (909) 386-3856.