The state Department of Transportation said it's on schedule to both reopen the Bridge Street on-ramp and add an additional travel lane on Interstate 95 southbound across the Gold Star Memorial Bridge prior to the Memorial Day weekend.

The DOT has an ongoing rehabilitation project for the southbound side of the bridge.

The change for the new lane configuration, which will provide four travel lanes, will occur over the week. Temporary lane closures after 7 p.m. are expected through Thursday, according to Project Engineer Keith Schoppe.

By the end the week, the DOT expects all of the barrier curbs will be relocated, the roadway re-striped and the Bridge Street on-ramp reopened.

On Monday night, the contractor will begin relocating the temporary concrete barrier curbs, which are expected to be in place by the end of Wednesday night's shift, Schoppe said. The next steps — line striping and the ramp reopening — are scheduled for Thursday night into Friday morning.

The DOT provided the following details on the new lane configuration:

• The Route 184 (Gold Star Highway) on-ramp will begin as a dedicated lane and continue as the left-most through lane on I-95.

• The added right-most lane will begin as a dedicated lane for the Bridge Street on-ramp and shall remain as a dedicated exit lane at Exit 84 to Route 32 and downtown New London.

• The pavement markings will be reconfigured to provide four lanes of traffic across the bridge. Through traffic will keep to the left three lanes.

• The work zone will be separated from the road with temporary concrete barrier curbs.

"We expect that adding the fourth lane across the bridge will significantly improve traffic flow across the bridge and facilitate the smooth flow of I-95 southbound traffic through the work zone," Schoppe said. "In addition, reopening the Bridge Street on-ramp should alleviate some of the congestion on secondary state and local roads."

k.drelich@theday.com