Though students can now use the Prospect Street Bridge to schlep up Science Hill, the bridge will remain off limits to motor vehicles until June.

The bridge is currently open to pedestrian and bicycle traffic, but it cannot open for cars until traffic signals and parapets are installed and work starts on a nearby sewer system, City Engineer Richard Miller said. As a result, classes that would usually start at 9:25 a.m. will start and end five minutes early this semester, as they did last semester, according to a campuswide e-mail from University Registrar Jill Carlton.

The bridge has been under construction since May, and the renovation was originally scheduled to finish this coming June, around the same time the new University Health Services Building is set to open nearby on Lock Street. Though construction on the bridge ran six months ahead of schedule, the original opening date still stands, Miller said; in addition to the as yet not installed traffic lights and parapets, other projects going on in the area may require the bridge to be closed briefly before June.

“The whole area is changing completely,” Miller said. “We’re trying to have everything ready as soon as possible to reopen the bridge without having to close it again.”

According to Carlton’s e-mail, the continued closure requires that the Yale shuttle’s blue, green and red lines still be rerouted. That rerouting has in turn caused the University to adjust its class schedule. The five-minute shift from 9:25 a.m. to 9:20 a.m. is designed to give students extra time to travel back from Science Hill.

Three students interviewed who are pursuing science majors said the rerouted shuttle lines and moved class times have not unfairly affected them since the schedule change applies to all students and faculty.

“It’s really not a big deal,” said Mike Jin ’13, who is taking a majority of his classes this semester on Science Hill. “Most of us science majors walk up anyway, and if you do take the shuttle, you only need to take a few more minutes out of your schedule.”