Relief on the Road to Providence

If you had to travel to or through Providence last week, you know how terrible the traffic on I-195 was. Now RIDOT is offering some relief.

The closure of the Gano St exit and a couple of lanes of traffic on the Washington Bridge was causing major headaches on I-195 Westbound last week. And it got so bad that the Rhode Island Department of Transportation is making a new plan.

We mentioned the roadwork and ensuing travel changes a few weeks ago, and as we predicted those changes were pretty terrible.

Things were getting backed up for miles at all times of the day and adding hours to travelers commutes.

So changes have been made.

As of Monday August 27th, a fourth lane of travel has been opened giving those merging from Taunton Ave an entire lane to themselves.

And RIDOT says a fifth lane will be opened on Tuesday as some of the Washington Bridge construction is put on hold.

The Gano St exit will remain closed however until engineers can devise a new plan.

The changes will certainly help with the flow of traffic as a more feasible detour plan is put in place for the bridge project.

The work does need to be done however, so at some point traffic will get snarled again...just hopefully not as badly as last week was.