Setting the beam across the highway turned out to be finished faster than the inspection work.

A crew from Atlantic Bridge & Engineering used a pair of cranes that together can lift more than 600 tons to set the heavy beam into place.

That beam, and another like it that is to be put in place across the southbound lanes tonight, will support girders that will hold up the concrete road deck for ramps crossing over Route 95. They are part of the new Route 95-195 interchange the DOT is building south of the existing one.

The DOT’s elaborate and heavily publicized detour plan worked. The DOT and police started closing lanes at 8 p.m.

When the highway was completely closed at 11 p.m., there was a long backup in the northbound lanes below the Thurbers Avenue exit, where traffic was sent off the highway and onto a detour through local city streets. But that cleared up by about midnight, and the detour, up Allens Avenue, seemed to be working smoothly.

Atlantic Bridge is a subcontractor for Cardi Corp., the general contractor for that portion of the DOT’s $600 million Route 195 relocation project.

The ramps being built now will carry westbound traffic from the new section of Route 195 across Route 95 and to the southbound lanes of Route 95. It will also carry traffic to an exit onto Eddy Street, serving Rhode Island Hospital.