In late 1963, builders started receiving the rectangular pieces that would make up the roadway deck. The components for the sixty 40-ton slabs were first created in an assembly line in Jersey City. Then, these components were combined in a Bayonne steelworks from the bridge site, and after the pieces of each slab were assembled, they were floated to the Narrows via barge. Each piece measured high by approximately wide and long. These pieces of the deck were then hung from the suspender cables. The first piece of the deck was lifted onto the bridge in October 1963. By early 1964, the span was nearly finished, and all that remained was to secure the various parts of the bridge. By this point, plans for new development on Staten Island were well underway, and tourists had come to observe the construction of the -Narrows Bridge. The bridge had been scheduled to open in 1965, but as a result of the faster-than-anticipated rate of progress, the TBTA decided to open the bridge in November 1964. In preparation for the -Narrows Bridge's opening, the TBTA fully repainted the structure. The construction process of the bridge had employed an average of 1,200 workers a day for five years, excluding those who had worked on the approaches; around 10,000 individuals had worked on the bridge throughout that five-year period.