So most of the reporters and cameramen headed to the plywood walkway – just a few feet wide -- off to the side of what will be the roadway.

It shook under our feet, feeling less sturdy than the steel beams. But the director of the state Department of Transportation, the DOT’s deputy chief engineer and the DOT’s public information crew walked with us, lending credibility to the plywood path.

We had to watch out underneath, as we stepped over bundles of green rebar, the steel rods that will be splayed out in a geometric pattern to further hold the concrete roadway.

A light mist gently cooled us as it rained down from above, where crews were pouring concrete along the parallel ramp – the one that will carry Route 95 north to Route 195 east. The mist keeps the concrete wet enough so it won’t crack.

Up the ramp we walked, an unusual chance to traverse on foot what cars will soon call their own.

The wind whipped hair and notebooks and neckties around. As the temperature crept into the high 70s, it felt good. But it was also an opportunity to consider the highway crews who have been working year-round on these ramps. Frank Corrao III, the DOT’s deputy chief engineer, reminded us how cold that wind could be in the middle of winter.

The DOT staff were cautious, offering a hand here and there to reporters, not wanting any missteps.

Audio: DOT's Frank Corrao III answers questions from reporters, as they stand atop the ramp.

And there we stood, on the partially built stretch of ramp that will cost about $85 million – just a fraction of the total $550 to $570 million for the complete interchange project.

We could walk as close to the edge of the steel deck pans as we dared. Ahead of us, sloping upward to the south, lay steel tub girders that are wide open and will remain so – they await the steel deck pans that will top them off.

But at the edge of the already-laid steel is the dropoff in between those tub girders. Route 95 races underneath us, some 50 to 60 feet down.

“This is really the future of what the interchange will look like,” Corrao told us, calling the entire project one of the most complex Rhode Island will ever see.

In its entirety, the ramp we walked today will stretch some 1,900 feet, from the new bridge all the way to Route 95 south. We only got halfway there, as the steel is yet to be laid out to complete that path.

It will be some time before we drive on this stretch. The full project is slated to open by around the end of 2009.

But we’ll be driving over the new arch bridge before we know it.

The ramp that’s parallel with the one we walked today – where the crews were spraying mist on the concrete they laid – is set to open and carry motorists over the new arch bridge within three to five months.