On December 11, 2023, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced it had “closed the west bound side of the Washington Bridge due to the finding of a critical failure of some bridge components… Depending on the severity of what RIDOT finds in its initial work, the repair could take three months or more.” A year later, there has been much frustration and little-known progress.
Here are some facts on RIDOT’s current and past projects on our Providence bridges:
45 – vehicular bridges span the 5 rivers in Providence
5 – rivers flow through our city: Moshassuck, Providence, Seekonk, West and Woonasquatucket
1,200 – bridges in RI are inspected annually by RIDOT
269 – bridges in RI have been reconstructed or replaced since 2016
5 – Washington Bridges have connected Providence’s East Side and East Providence; the 1st bridge was built in 1793; the 5th bridge built in 1968 was 2,400 feet long with 12 arches
$10.5M – project cost of rebuilding the West River Bridge, a 36-foot bridge across the West River which carries 8,000 vehicles a day; work began July 2024, estimated completion time 4 months
8,137 – average daily traffic on the Eagle Street Bridge over the Woonasquatucket River in 2021; the bridge was last inspected on 11/28/2023 and rated in fair condition
$84.4M – cost of rebuilding the Henderson Bridge over the Seekonk River; the bridge carries 20,000 vehicles a day; construction dates 2020-2025
3 acres – or 1,147 feet wide was the size of the Crawford Street Bridge over the Providence River when it was built in 1873; listed as the world’s widest bridge in the 1988 Guinness Book of World Records
$7M – project to replace the Pleasant Valley Parkway Bridge’s superstructure as a 2-span structure over the Woonasquatucket River in 2016-2017, when it carried 41,000 vehicles
$9,300 – cost of building the Stevens Street Bridge over the Moshassuck River in 1894; expensive for its day, it’s original stone arch spans 33 feet
10/31/2023 – date of last RIDOT inspection of the Veazie Street Bridge over the West River; rated in poor condition
450 feet – length of the Michael Van Leesten footbridge across the Providence River; built 2016-2019 on the piers which supported part of the old I-195; cost $21M
$5B – cost of the RhodeWorks program which provides for the planning, execution, management and funding to bring the RI’s infrastructure into a state of good repair by the year 2025
$779M – for the I-95 15 design project by RIDOT from 2024-2031 which will remove 15 bridges along I-95 and Route 10 between Providence and Warwick, the corridor which carries 185,000 vehicles daily
Sources:
Nini Stoddard is a proud Providence resident. After living abroad as the child of a US diplomat, she returned to the United States to attend college. She lived in Connecticut and enjoyed working as a librarian, as a director of a regional non-profit, and as a prospect researcher. Nini moved to Providence in 2006 to work at Brown University as a senior prospect researcher. Now retired, she loves local history and volunteering.
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