East Providence residents and all commuters traveling along I-195 will be dealing with another bridge-related construction project soon.

Thankfully, this one is pre-planned and being announced ahead of time to give people a heads up and a chance to prepare for the complications it will cause, and will (if all goes to plan) result in less congestion in an area long-known for traffic jams near the Washington Bridge.

On Friday, Nov. 6, starting at 10:00 p.m., the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) will close I-195 in both directions near the Taunton Avenue exit in East Providence. The closure will last for approximately 12 hours, and will enable the state to demolish the Potter Street bridge that spans the interstate from Freeborn Avenue to School Street. Some lanes on I-195 will re-open around at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7, with all lanes being reopened by noon.

After that, the process of building a new bridge that spans Potter Street will begin, which RIDOT says will take 12-18 months.

According to RIDOT spokesperson Charles St. Martin, the demolition of the Potter Street bridge is a planned part of the state’s ongoing reopening of the Washington Bridge, which famously closed without warning on Dec. 11, 2023. The new Washington Bridge is currently projected to be completed in early November of 2028.

Decreasing congestion on 195

According to St. Martin, the Potter Street bridge, built in 1959, was built in such a way that requires the reduction of lanes on I-195 East and West from four to three when passing beneath it.

In rebuilding the bridge, it will give the state the opportunity to maintain four lanes of travel through to the new Washington Bridge to the west, as well as areas at points where there will be five lanes of travel for certain exit off-ramps.

“We wanted to clear up congestion pinch points,” St. Martin said. “The bridge is located in an area where there has been chronic congestion as long as most people can remember.”

St. Martin said that, like work ongoing with the Washington Bridge, much of the work to rebuild the Potter Street bridge and accomplish the lane widening of 195 beneath it will take place at night, lessening impact on commuters.

Decreasing the impact on people is also why the state decided to shut down the highway for 12 hours rather than do the demolition of the bridge in phases.

“The bridge is such that it would need to be supported if you took it down in pieces. The supports would have to be installed in the road,” St. Martin said. “We were looking at having lane closures for several weeks over the demo period as opposed to the one day full closure. That was part of our determination.”

St. Martin said that Potter Street being closed for 12-18 months would create a limited impact to local traffic, as the bridge only sees 1,200 cars estimated daily, and the bridge directly to the east on Purchase Street would not be affected.

Mayor DaSilva posted about the pending disruption on his Facebook page on Oct. 16 following a meeting with DOT officials and Providence Mayor Brett Smiley.

“I would imagine that both Nov. 6 and Nov. 7, we’re going to see a lot of traffic in and around the city. Probably gridlock conditions, similar to what happened when they first shut down the highway. But with this instance we have way, way advanced notice. So I’m grateful to the DOT for having brought us in today to discuss this, because it’s important to get the information out to the community as early as possible,” he said. "It’s unfortunately a necessary part of this process that will, in the end, make traffic moving on 195 West and East much better than it’s ever, ever, ever been. Anybody who’s lived in East Providence for any amount of time knows that even prior to this bridge shutting down, every single morning there would be backed up traffic on 195 into Seekonk during rush hour.”