Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge

The opening of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in New Haven, Connecticut in September 2015 brought considerable traffic relief to the 140,000 vehicles that travel across the bridge on Interstate 95 every day.

The 10-lane bridge, known locally as the Q-Bridge, crosses the Quinnipiac River and replaced the original six-lane Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, which was built in 1958 and designed to accommodate 40,000 vehicles daily.

A grand-opening celebration and dedication ceremony on Sept. 19, 2015 marked a major milestone for the I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program. Nearly 10,000 people attended and walked over the new southbound portion of the bridge, which officially opened to traffic on Sept. 28.

The northbound portion of the bridge opened for traffic ahead of schedule in 2012. The new I-95/I-91/Route 34 interchange at the southern approach to the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge includes three lanes in each direction. The expanded interchange can accept 10 lanes of traffic from the new bridge. 

The Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge is the first bridge in the U.S. with an extradosed design—a hybrid of a cable-stayed and box girder structure—which allows the structure to accommodate longer spans than a girder bridge while using shorter towers than a conventional cable-stayed bridge.

Since 1999, WSP USA has served as the program manager for the I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program on behalf of the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT).

The interchange project includes the construction of more than 20 highway bridges and 20 retaining walls. In addition to the new bridge and interchange, the I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program includes improvements to 7.2 miles of I-95, and transit enhancements including upgrades to four Shore Line East commuter train stations and the new State Street commuter rail station in downtown New Haven, which was completed in 2002.