PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Construction workers completed their feat of tearing down one bridge and replacing it with another over the weekend, allowing a key stretch of I-295 to reopen Monday morning in Maine’s largest city.

The bridge closed Friday evening and reopened by 7:30 a.m., several hours ahead of schedule, for the morning commute.

The technique of prefabricating a bridge and quickly moving it into place is the construction equivalent of ripping off a Band-Aid.

It reduces highway disruptions to several days compared to an estimated four years of disruptions during typical construction, officials said. This is the first time MDOT has tried the technique.