The new White Church Bridge carried its first cars across the Barrington River on Wednesday morning, Sept. 2.

A section of the bridge was opened to traffic for the first time ever as Rhode Island Department of Transportation officials began a transition phase of the bridge replacement project.

"Traffic will be shifted in two phases, beginning with the westbound lanes today," stated a Sept. 2 release from the DOT. "Crews will work to widen the bridge approaches, with the goal of adding eastbound traffic after Labor Day."

DOT officials wanted to remind motorists that while the transition is taking place, there will likely be daytime travel restrictions — drivers can expect one-way traffic at times and detours.

Once all traffic is transitioned off the older section of bridge onto the new span, more work will continue. Crews will demolish the old bridge, begin building a third lane of traffic and install a sidewalk on the south side of the bridge.

The new bridge will not have a weight limit; the existing span is saddled with a 15-ton limit.

"One by one, we are doing what we can to lift weight limits like this that affect communities throughout Rhode Island," said RIDOT Director Peter Alviti Jr. "But there's still much more to do. We're working hard to expedite repairs to our infrastructure to help get our economy back on track."

During a visit to the bridge on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Alviti praised the work of the contractor, Cardi Corp., and its subcontractors. He also pointed to the White Church Bridge — it's officially titled "Central Bridge" — as a model for future bridge construction jobs in Rhode Island.

He said the White Church Bridge had been one of 240 bridges across the state deemed "deficient." He said the DOT now has a program that dedicates funding for bridge replacement projects.

Mr. Alviti said that approximately 1 out of every 5 bridges in the state are structurally deficient, and that figure was due to increase to 1 in every 2 bridges in the next 10 years, unless the state built a specific plan to address the issue. With the new plan in place, the state is expected to cut the figure to 1 in every 10.

"We've got a long road ahead of us," Mr. Alviti added.

"This is a model project — it's on time and it's on budget."

The White Church Bridge replacement is estimated to cost $15.4 million. Bridge work is scheduled to conclude in the fall of 2016, with overall completion (including storm water mitigation work) slated for spring 2017.