By September 1946, both Tanner and Fisher had made substantial progress on their respective sections, with all excavation on the Tanner section completed, with preliminary paving work beginning. Both sections, however, were disconnected by the Santa Fe Railway which cut the new highway in half. At the time, planning for a railroad overpass was being undertaken by the State Highway Department. The H.L. Royden Company was awarded the contract for constructing the overpass. The new highway was opened to traffic in October 1947 and US 66 was re-routed onto it, bypassing the hamlet of Townsend between Flagstaff and Winona. The overall cost of the project ended up being $1,433,400 (equivalent to $ in ). Although the route between Townsend and Winona was removed from the state highway system, the section from Flagstaff to Townsend remained part of US 89, which shared a wrong-way concurrency with US 66 from Townsend to Ash Fork. Following the re-routing, the concurrency was shortened to an intersection between the old and new route in eastern Flagstaff.