SALEM — The New Hampshire Department of Transportation announces the planned opening of a new 1.75-mile section of Interstate 93 southbound in Salem is scheduled for Friday night.

Opening this new section of highway will allow for the reconstruction of the old southbound lanes to complete the widening effort. This traffic shift will also enable the demolition and replacement of the I-93 southbound bridge over Lowell Road. Work hours are anticipated to begin at 8 p.m. Friday and will conclude by 1 a.m. Saturday, after the southbound traffic is shifted.

There is also night work leading up to this event, anticipated for tonight, which will require similar work hours. All of this work is weather-dependent. Uniformed officers and traffic control devices will be used to assist motorists through the work zone.

Motorists using this new section of Interstate 93 will proceed as previously to travel south toward Massachusetts and to use the Exit 1 off-ramp to access Rockingham Boulevard in Salem.

This work is part of the $30.5 million I-93 mainline widening and reconstruction project in the vicinity of Exit 1. The general contractor is Middlesex Corporation of Littleton, Mass.