What’s the timeline for the the latest Washington Bridge construction?

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) Director Peter Alviti announced Wednesday that new traffic patterns would be coming to the Washington Bridge.

These changes will be put in place to speed up commuter travel over the bridge that has been partially closed since December of 2023.

RIDOT will be working with the Federal Highway Administration to alleviate congestion and lower the traffic times on Route-195.

The westbound and eastbound sides will each get an additional lane when the work is concluded.

“Vehicles will be crossing over the westbound direction will be crossing over to the eastbound lane a little bit earlier than they are now, about 3000 feet west from where they’re crossing right now but there’ll be an additional lane or a 50 percent increase in both directions in both eastbound and westbound,” said Alviti. 

The three lanes will be narrower than they are now, with two ten foot lanes for vehicles, and the righthand lane will measure 11 feet.

Trucks will be restricted to the righthand lane.

“We know that adding 50 percent capacity to what is there right now is going to save considerable amount of time, but depending on the time of day and traffic conditions, weather or accident conditions that will vary, we do know there will be overall savings in both directions,” said Alviti. 

There are no estimates at this time as to what the new traffic times will be.

“As I mentioned I’m not going to be talking about time as much as I mentioned, I got in trouble for that, but we continue to keep the information flowing to people so that they can kind of plan their schedules and anticipate their schedules,” said Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee. 

The speed limit will be reduced to 40 mph to avoid accidents, and the construction, which starts Monday, is expected to last eight weeks depending on weather and supply chain factors.