Opening Day : Transportation: Drivers breathe a sigh of relief at being able to drive the Santa Monica Freeway. But for car-poolers, the commute was longer.

That loud whooshing sound you heard coming from the Santa Monica Freeway on Tuesday wasn’t just the noise of cars speeding past.

Some of it was a collective sigh of relief coming from hundreds of thousands of motorists glad that the world’s busiest freeway was open to traffic for the first time since the Jan. 17 earthquake.

“It’s a happy day. It suddenly opens the other side of the city to us,” said film producer David Miller of Topanga Canyon.

“The last few months have been awful. I actually quit the job I was working at in Glendale because it was impossible to get there with the freeway out,” said Naida Albright, a car saleswoman who lives in Palms.

Commuters can be a cynical bunch. And for good reason.

They have learned the hard way that radio traffic reporters always seem to be late in pinpointing traffic jams--and that Caltrans sweepers always seem to be early in closing the rush-hour fast lane when it comes time to clean the median divider.

But most motorists seemed genuinely grateful as they whisked past Fairfax Avenue, past the two concrete bridges rebuilt at a cost of nearly $30 million, and past the platform filled with politicians taking deep bows for the swift repair job.

Half that cost was bonus money paid to the contractor for speeding up the project.

“It was money well spent,” said Ken Kukene, a traveling salesman who described as hellish the zigzagging route he took from his Santa Monica home to the Downtown garment district after the freeway collapse. “I will not be upset if I never see National Boulevard again.”

Darren Johnson, a security guard who lives a few blocks from the Westside freeway collapse site, said: “Whoever that contractor is, he’s rolling in dough. But he should be commended.”

Sabra Robinson-Niles, a children’s therapist from Santa Monica, feared that the freeway would be shut for a year when she saw the quake damage.

“I’m thinking about making a call to somebody because I’m really impressed with how quickly they got it fixed,” she said.

But there was a whistle-like whew sound of disbelief coming from some commuters who wondered whether the contractor was overpaid--and whether problems caused by the freeway collapse were overblown.

“Whoever negotiated that $15-million bonus needs to look at their motives,” said Ty Cueva, a telecommunications employee who lives in Santa Monica and works in Downtown Los Angeles.

“For me it’s been quicker driving the detour. It’s been about five or 10 minutes quicker, to be honest with you.”

Norman Cohen and Lynn Dumenil, husband-and-wife professors who live in Venice and teach at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, plan to continue arising at 6 a.m. as they learned to do while commuting around the collapsed bridges.

“It was kind of amazing it was done so rapidly,” said Cohen, who teaches music. “Like all good citizens, we’re happy about that. But we’re very upset about the payment to speed up the production.”

Lawyer Carol G. Miller, who car-pooled to work in Downtown Los Angeles during the project and enjoyed the use of a temporary diamond lane, said her commute was taking 25 minutes. Until the freeway reopened, that is.

“It was almost like flying. But today it was the old sit and wait--was just like old times,” she said.

Tuesday’s trip to work took 40 minutes instead of 25.

But Tuesday was a grand day for most on the Westside.

“It’s worth whatever it took to get the freeway reopened,” producer Miller said.

“We almost went down there last night to watch the first cars go through,” auto saleswoman Albright said.

“This whole thing has made people feel like we’re healing a little better.”

Times staff writer Mathis Chazanov contributed to this report.