After a long winter of trying to beat the red lights between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, Islanders can look forward to a summer without traffic signals on Beach Road. On Tuesday highway department supervisor Richard Combra confirmed that stoplights at the two bridges on Sengekontacket would be gone for Memorial Day weekend as work wraps up on their reconstruction this week.

“The lights are coming down,” he said. “The contractor has requested another four days of work after Memorial Day and they’re going to be working Tuesday through Friday after but the roadway will be open. Both bridges, both ways.”

The work to restore the bridges began last winter. On Thursday Richard Nangle of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation said the $14.5 million project, carried out by the Acton-based contractor MIG Corporation, was on budget and on schedule and would be almost entirely completed by next Friday.

“The contractor will be back in the fall to perform minimal work (mostly landscape and punch list work),” he wrote in an e-mail. “The actual project completion date is Oct. 17, 2011.”

Town administrator Michael Dutton explained the work on the bridges.

“They had been planning this project for 10 years,” he said. “The footings of the old bridges were pile-driven down some, but they were really just on sand. They planned it as a two-year project, half of each bridge the first winter and the other half of each bridge the second year, which they’ve just about done. They came to Edgartown and Oak Bluffs early in the process and asked if we were interested in making it a one-year project which would require that we close the road for the winter. The consensus was that we didn’t want to do that.”

One snag in the project has been in the design of the inside railing of the bridges, especially on the one known as the Big Bridge, a popular spot for jumpers and divers of all ages. Local officials have contacted the state about altering the design of the fence to protect pedestrians but the state has refused. Last week Dukes County manager Russell Smith said the county and towns would likely have to address the problem themselves as they did last year when they installed snow fencing along the road.

A little farther up the road at the Steamship Authority wharf, work continues at the clay brick bathhouse, a structure that withstood the 1938 hurricane and a winter’s worth of reconstruction. Mr. Dutton said the plan is to open the comfort station in time for the Fourth of July. Along with its refurbished interior and exterior, the new bathhouse will also feature a family rest room and will be accessible for people with handicaps.

“Barbato construction has done a great job,” said Mr. Dutton. “The inside tile work is going on and they’re doing the exterior steps, the regrading and the curbing and getting ready to pour the concrete for the sidewalk. All the exterior stuff should be done by this weekend. They have until June 28 to complete the inside work.”

The project has been paid for by a combination of $440,000 of Community Preservation Act money and a $240,000 federal grant.