Right on schedule, the traffic cones have been hauled away, police details have vanished and workers have disappeared: Exit 1 off of Interstate 93 is all but officially a finished job.

After spending two years on the project, the bulk of Mark Caesar’s work has become tying up loose ends. There is still some work left to be done, said Caesar, a contract administrator with the state Department of Transportation, but the heavy equipment and masses of construction workers are gone for the foreseeable future.

At its height throughout 2008, the roughly $24 million project included eight or nine subcontractors on any given day, employing some 75 to 100 workers under the direction of the prime contractor, Salisbury Mass., based SPS New England. Seven bridges on the state’s red-list were replaced since August 2007 and highway ramps were reworked in anticipation of eventually widening the interstate from two to four lanes in either direction.

Now Caesar is focusing on getting delineators – essentially reflectors – installed on the guardrails, laying grass down on the embankments, adding dry standpipes to the new bridges and putting a drainage system in place to filter the runoff from the freshly paved road.

“These things are going to be installed with great frequency as we move through there,” Caesar said. “We’re finishing it up in one round. No more night work. We’re in the home stretch.”

That’s music to Peter Stamnas’ ears. The I-93 project manager said the DOT can now move forward with plans to double the traffic lanes along a 20-mile stretch from Salem to Manchester. All he’s waiting for is the completion of a supplemental environmental impact study final report – required after a 2007 lawsuit brought on by the Conservation Law Fund – and a thumbs up from the Federal Highway Administration.

With comments coming in from residents and officials in communities lining the interstate, Stamnas believes the final report will be issued sometime around Jan. 1 and pending the go-ahead by federal authorities, work could begin as soon as the summer of 2010.

“The majority of the dozens and dozens of e-mails and letters I have received are in support of the project,” he said. “We put (the SEIS) out in the beginning of August and people have read it and made their opinions known ... We’ll continue to involve the public to shape and model the plan.”

Count Salem Selectman Everett McBride among those backing the project. McBride voted along with the rest of the board to send a letter to DOT Commissioner George Campbell praising the work last week.

Commuting daily to Burlington, Mass., McBride said it was nice to see the traffic cones had gone, but even better to know that the bridges were safe and ready for a wider highway.

“I think its time to go forward,” he said. “They’re putting in park-and-rides and educating folks on using the bus services. I think they’re doing everything they can to get as many cars off the highway as they can.”