Third Washington Bridge westbound lane opening tonight

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A third lane is coming to westbound traffic on the Washington Bridge, about a week after RIDOT added an additional lane to the eastbound side.

While officials are hoping this will ease traffic, there may be growing pains along the way.

That was the case last week when the third eastbound lane was added, with around half of ABC6 viewers saying it led to slower drive times.

The new lanes are thinner than average, leaving less space between commuters.

According to RIDOT director Peter Alviti, the main cause of these delays isn’t the traffic, but accidents on the bridge.

“The first couple of days are going to be different for people. It’s going to look different, it’s going to feel different, so there will be some delays in the first day or two after we make that change on Friday,” said Alviti.

“But we expect, our engineers expect to see the same benefits come from that third lane that we currently have in the eastbound direction, we expect to see that same benefit in the westbound direction.”

Crews are expected to start around 9 p.m. Friday, and be finished ahead of Saturday morning.

As always officials are reminding commuters to take caution when dealing with these new traffic patterns, and remember the speed limit is now 40 miles per hour on the bridge.

Governor McKee, director Alviti, and staff with state police will hold a press conference later Friday morning to talk about safety concerns and enforcement on the 195, we’ll bring you that coverage as the day continues.