Interstate 295 in Portland is back open just in time for the Monday morning commute.
It was closed all weekend while crews replaced the Veranda Street Bridge, and now it’s wrapping up ahead of schedule.
The bridge was expected to open at 11 a.m. and instead opened shortly before 7 a.m. Veranda Street itself will reopen around 2 p.m.
Over the weekend, the existing bridge was demolished and a new one installed using a technique the Maine Department of Transportation has never used before.
Instead of using a conventional bridge construction technique, crews used an “accelerated bridge construction” technique along with a “self-propelled modular transporter.”
The Department of Transportation said the old method could have created traffic congestion for four years, compared with one weekend of detours on and off the highway.