Simi Valley Freeway Up, Running : Repairs: The last major bottleneck caused by the Jan. 17 quake is history with the reopening of five lanes of traffic.

It wasn’t quite in time for the Labor Day weekend rush. But five new westbound lanes of the Simi Valley Freeway reopened soon enough for Todd Burns, who slipped away on them Saturday, his fiancee by his side.

“Great! Beautiful! I love it,” said Burns, who was headed for a weekend in the mountains.

The freeway had been narrowed to three lanes in each direction since the Jan. 17 earthquake. But with the opening early Saturday of new decks on the San Fernando Mission Boulevard and Bull Creek overpasses, the last major freeway bottleneck left by the quake became history.

Two more lanes on the eastbound side are expected to be reopened by Wednesday. Unlike other post-quake freeway projects, the California Department of Transportation offered no special incentives to construction crews to speed up work on the Simi Valley Freeway because the route remained partially open to traffic. Nonetheless, the work was finished 16 days ahead of schedule, said Frank Latham, the project’s resident engineer.

The only quake repairs still in progress on the region’s freeways are two ramps of the Antelope Valley Freeway at the Golden State Freeway interchange. When those reopen Nov. 5, the last quake-related freeway repairs will be complete, said Jerry Baxter, Los Angeles district director for Caltrans.

Crews had kept three lanes open each way throughout the repairs on the Simi Valley Freeway by routing traffic to whichever side was not being fixed. But freeway commuters said the work led to frequent backups nonetheless.

“It was havoc,” said Burns, who lives in Canoga Park and travels the freeway to work each day.

The earthquake crumpled the eastbound deck of the freeway and caused the westbound side to sag several feet, Baxter said. Workers temporarily shored up the sagging deck so traffic could pass, then tore down the collapsed bridge and ground it to gravel. Both sides were then rebuilt from the ground up.

The work cost about $24 million in federal earthquake restoration funds. Altogether, Caltrans has spent close to $250 million fixing Los Angeles’ quake-battered freeways.

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Peggie Roach, whose home sits in the shadow of the northbound on-ramp at Woodley Avenue, was among those most relieved to see the construction crews go.

“Thank God,” she said. “It’s been a nightmare.” Roach’s windows are still coated with the fine white dust the construction work kicked up. And her family has endured months of machinery noise at all hours, she said.

For Kelly Gladstone, who also rode the freeway Saturday from Simi Valley, the completion of work was a boost to morale, more than anything else.

“It means things are almost back to normal,” she said. “We are finally getting there.”