SAN FRANCISCO -- Caltrans officials cut the ribbon on San Francisco's new Central Freeway Friday, ending a rocky road that began during 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and wound its way through ballot battles, heated neighborhood meetings and years of construction detours.

The new freeway stops just south of Market Street, continuing into the now expanded six-lane, tree-lined boulevard of Octavia Street in Hayes Valley. It gives drivers traveling on I-80 easier access to the Haight, Western Addition and Golden Gate Park.

While the ribbon cutting ceremony took place at Octavia and Market streets Friday, the off-ramp itself will not be open until Saturday morning.

Caltrans spokesman Jeff Weiss said the project presented several unique challenges.

"The idea was to move 90,000 cars but to maintain the neighborhood feel of Hayes Valley and the surrounding areas," Weiss said.

The project has been a successful compromise, Weiss added, between the residents of the city's western neighborhoods and those who live near the freeway.

"Generally people in the western neighborhoods preferred restoring the off-ramps in full," said Weiss, while those in Hayes Valley and surrounding areas preferred demolishing the overpass as much as possible.

"People at Caltrans are very happy," Weiss said of the project's completion, "because this project was a long time coming and very difficult to design."

Caltrans first started meeting with the city in 1996 to discuss the fate of the Central Freeway overpass, damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Three times the issue went in front of San Francisco voters and wasn't until 1999 that a decision was reached on the $62 million project. Then came the massive demolition process in 2003 of tearing down the old off-ramps on the heavily traveled Oak and Fell streets.

Easy access to UC San Francisco Medical Center, the Golden Gate Park, Japantown was lost to visitors and local residents.

"There's no question that this is going to be better," Jose Luis Moscovich, executive director of the San Francisco Transportation Authority told the Chronicle.

City officials will monitor traffic over the next year to determine what, if any, measures are needed to alleviate traffic-related problems on surrounding streets.