NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) Motorists are about to get a break as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge on Interstate 95 in New Haven opens to traffic.

Known as the Q Bridge, it's scheduled to open about eight months ahead of schedule.

Construction of the main span bridge was completed in July and four lanes of the southbound bridge are scheduled to open the week of Sept. 28.

The bridge, which spans the Quinnipiac River, is a key part of an 18-year, nearly $2 billion Interstate-95 improvement program in the New Haven Harbor area.

The bridge has five lanes and two full shoulders in the northbound and southbound directions. The original span was built in the late 1950s and is among the most heavily traveled of the Northeast corridor between New York and Boston.