Construction on North Meridian Road in Kalispell is finished for the year and traffic is back to posted speeds.

"We were basically done with this thing about three weeks ago," said Sam Weyers, project manager for Nelcon, the contractor for the road job. "We're well over two months ahead of schedule."

Nelcon's contract stipulated the company had to complete the road by Nov. 30.

If it finished early, the state agreed to pay Nelcon an additional $7,000 a day for up to 20 days - a maximum of $140,000.

Crews have used the last few weeks for final cleanup in preparation for the winter shutdown, Weyers said.

The Meridian project, which began in October 2005, will be completely finished next summer, he said. Crews will do the final chipping and paint striping sometime between June 1 and Aug. 31.

The final work won't take long, he said. "Maybe a couple of weeks' worth of work total is all."