Commuters have had to deal with a Bay Bridge closure over Labor Day weekend in 2006, 2007 and 2009, and now they will deal with it for the fourth time in 2013. California's Bay Bridge will be closed so that workers can complete a new eastern span over the Labor Day weekend, and an opening is expected early next week.

The new crossing is expected to open late Monday or early Tuesday morning, but the exact timing is still being worked out, bridge spokesman Andrew Gordon said, NBC Bay Area reports.

However, CNN reports that the bridge, which connects San Francisco and Oakland in California, will reopen Tuesday morning.

About 280,000 vehicles use the Bay Bridge each day. This weekend's closure is the fourth time in seven years that officials have shut the bridge down over the Labor Day weekend, when traffic is significantly lighter, NBC Bay Area reports.

Crowded roadways and packed buses, trains and ferries are on tap for commuters after officials shut down the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the website writes.

"Be patient, wherever you're going,'' John Goodwin, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said, NBC Bay Area reports. "We saw this same thing during the bridge closures in 2007 and 2009. The Bay Area keeps moving. It just becomes more sluggish.''

The new span will cost about $6.4 billion.

The bridge officially closed at 8:05 p.m. Wednesday and work began almost immediately. Most of the work will include grinding, grading, re-paving and striping the new bridge, according to NBC Bay Area.

In all, about 2,000 truckloads of asphalt will be coming in, while 3,000 loads of dirt and gravel will be coming out during the installation, officials said.

The Bay Bridge was damaged nearly 24 years ago, after the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake permanently damaged the existing eastern span.