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July 11, 2007

Update: Rte. 95 stretch closing again for night work

Journal photo / Bob Thayer
A workman today readies a pier about 50 yards east of Route 95 in Providence for the placement of tub girders.

PROVIDENCE – The state Department of Transportation is again preparing to close a stretch of Route 95 as it works to install tub girders over the highway as part of the Route 95-Route 195 interchange project.

Closures are slated to begin on Sunday night, July 29, with lane restrictions starting at 8 p.m. and all lanes closed by 11.

The roadway is expected to reopen by 5:30 a.m. at the latest for the morning rush hour, according to DOT officials who made the announcement this morning on the Point Street Overpass.

The plan is similar to one followed this spring as DOT crews worked in the overnight hours to install another stretch of the new roadway.

The lane closures between Exits 18 and 20 will vary daily, with one or both sides of Route 95 closed on various days. DOT expects the road closures to run through Aug. 12, but that date could change depending on weather.

In addition to the Route 95 closures, Eddy Street in Providence will be closed for three evenings beginning next Wednesday, July 18, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and again on three nights beginning Aug. 7 so crews can install girders over the roadway, the DOT said.

Schedule and detour information, plus maps, are available on the DOT Web site here.

Phone information will be available by dialing 511, [(888) 401-4511 for out-of-state callers], at the DOT’s advisory radio at 1630 AM, and through the DOT’s customer service line at (401) 222-2450.

Officials said they will use five overhead message signs and another 12 portable message signs to notify drivers of the detours.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson and Journal staff writer Bruce Landis

Eddy Street will be closed between its intersection with Allens Avenue to Crary Street just south of Route 95.The DOT said detours will be arranged and will not affect traffic to the hospital.

As the agency did for the springtime closures, the DOT has laid out an elaborate system of detours.

This one provides for the diversion of traffic north and southbound on Route 95 and westbound on Route 195 at various times and in various combinations, plus detours for rescue vehicles headed for Rhode Island Hospital. The plan is complicated enough to require three maps with eight colors and three kinds of dotted lines to show the detours.

The closures are to allow the contractor, Cardi Corp., to install tub girders, long, box-like steel beams that will support the highway deck. The DOT said this phase of the project will involve placing 61 of the girders, weighing between 13 and 47 tons, on concrete piers already built along Route 95. Cranes today were lifting some of the girders into place along the highway near Rhode Island Hospital.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 4:23 PM | Permalink

July 11, 2007

Update: Rte. 95 stretch closing again for night work

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