At least part of the new Interstate 40 in Oklahoma City could be open as soon as next month, officials said.

The state Transportation Department stopped short of naming a target date Wednesday, but spokeswoman Brenda Perry said lanes in one or both directions of the new freeway should be open sometime in January.

The construction project is ahead of schedule. Officials had long targeted 2012 as the year in which the new freeway would open, and of late had been saying it could be open by spring.

The new, 10-lane I-40 runs about five blocks south of the existing freeway — the aging and crumbling Crosstown Expressway — from the Interstate 44 junction to the junction with Interstates 35 and 235.