The first visible signs of progress in Providence's biggest road project have appeared, eight years before the project is expected to be complete.

09:29 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 10, 2004

BY BRUCE LANDIS
Journal Staff Writer

Journal photo / John Freidah The first visible signs of progress in the gigantic effort to reroute Route 195 have appeared, eight years before the project is expected to be complete.

Digital extra

Enlarged photo and graphic

PROVIDENCE -- The skeleton of the new section of Route 195 is appearing aboveground on both sides of the Providence River, offering a rough outline of the Department of Transportation's massive construction project moving the highway and its intersection with Route 95 to the south.

On the river itself, there's no sign yet of the centerpiece of the project, a new bridge with a 400-foot-wide arch that will be built just south of the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier.

Even on land, a great deal of the work that has been done remains invisible, consisting of 100-foot-plus, steel-reinforced concrete piles driven down to bedrock to hold up bridge and highway structures.

But while it doesn't look much like a highway yet, an outline of the project is visible on both sides of the river, although it's easier to make out from some directions than others.

So far, said James R. Caroselli, the DOT's chief civil engineer, the project is moving along "very well." With an estimated cost of around $450 million, the project won't be finished until around 2012, when the new highway and bridge are built and the existing bridges and embankments removed.

Heading west into Providence from East Providence, Route 195 crosses the Washington Bridge over the Seekonk River into the city's East Side. Partway to the Providence River, it swings northwest, then crosses the river north of Point Street and the hurricane barrier, and curves southwest to meet Route 95.

The project will replace that half-loop with a relatively straight section of highway leading to the Providence River at Fox Point, just below the hurricane barrier, and the bridge that will cross the river, landing just below the power plant on the west bank.

The new intersection is designed to be easier to drive through and safer.

Without the bridge, it's harder to make out the overall shape of the project from many directions. The easiest way to see the project's future is to look at it from its ends.

From the west, looking from the northbound lanes of Route 95 below the existing Route 195 exit, a break in the gas tanks to the right, just past a big green tank, offers a clear view down the right-of-way toward the hurricane barrier and the Providence River.

There, the most obvious sign of the project's eventual location has been unchanged for months. That is an elongated, mostly flat-topped mound of fill, with some grass growing on top. That is where the ramps will fan out from the new bridge where it comes ashore just to the right, or the south, of the hurricane barrier.

That dirt pile headed toward Route 95 is about 40 feet high, Caroselli said, and was put there to "pre-load" -- squash, that is -- the silty peat underneath. That's so it won't settle later, when the highway ramps are built on top. The weight of fill, he said, has forced the ground down by about two feet.

On the east end of the project, in the Fox Point section, some of the vertical, concrete retaining walls are visible, along with piles of fill that stick up above the highway. They point the way to where the bridge will be built.

To see the project's outline from the east, a good vantage point is at the north end of the pedestrian bridge across Route 195 to India Point Park. That footbridge starts at George M. Cohan Boulevard, a local street that runs next to but above Route 195 near Tockwotten Home and Gregorian Elementary School.

From there, looking west across Route 195 toward the river and Rhode Island Hospital, Route 195's future path is marked by concrete retaining walls that will support the embankment under the new section of highway. The dirt piles will be used for fill, and the graffiti decorating the retaining walls will end up mostly underground, Caroselli said.

For a bulldozer's-eye view of the retaining walls at the east end of the project, drive south on Gano Street, the local street on the Providence bank of the Seekonk River, pass under 195, turn right on India Street and drive the length of India Point Park toward the river.

The first signs of the new bridge will appear shortly, Caroselli said, in the form of a temporary structure built to support equipment or hold up the permanent structure while it is being built.

Caroselli said the temporary work in the Providence River will be structures to support the machinery that will drill eight-foot-wide holes into the river bottom, down to and into the rock beneath for perhaps 20 feet.

A steel drill casing encloses the hole as it's drilled, and will be filled with steel reinforcement and concrete. Drivers passing through regularly will recall similar material -- enormous sections of pipe you could walk through, big green cylinders of reinforcing steel to go inside -- sitting on the Washington Bridge the winter before last, while construction crews there built the foundation for a new eastbound section of the bridge.

The only part of the project that is seriously behind schedule, Caroselli said, is the replacement of the Point Street overpass, which carries that local road across Route 95. Delayed by unexpected sub-soil conditions that forced some redesigning, that bridge is about a year behind schedule, he said.

A major target of the 195 relocation project is improved highway safety. The existing junction of 195 with 95 is relatively inhospitable to drivers, with entrance and exit ramps on the left and right, and relatively sharp curves.

One of the project's safety goals is to eliminate "weaves," where drivers who enter on one side of the highway must exit shortly afterward on the other side by shifting across lanes in a hurry.

For example, driving westbound on Route 195 from East Providence and heading for Rhode Island Hospital now involves entering Route 95 southbound on its left side, then crossing the whole highway to exit from the right lane.

The new intersection is supposed to eliminate that kind of situation, which is at best awkward and at worst traumatic, while also replacing the relatively tight turns of the ramps' curves with wider curves and better visibility.

For a look at how things are supposed to appear at the project's conclusion, the DOT has animated views of the drive through the new intersection from various directions on its Web site, http://www.dot.state.ri.us.

The designs show smooth curves that can be negotiated easily. For example, one animation depicts a trip through the intersection from the East Side to the new exit for Rhode Island Hospital with a single lane change.