The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced last week that replacement work finished six months early on Oxford Street Bridge in Providence, R.I.
The early completion of the project also kept the $10.8 million project $500,000 under budget. RIDOT credits the project’s success to accelerated bridge construction methods utilized on one of the busiest sections of I-95. Those methods included pre-manufactured beam components that allowed the concrete deck/beam combination to be installed side-by-side to create a new bridge deck, as well as summertime lane shifts to reduce traffic impact.
“The quick replacement of the bridge is a testament to the project management model we’ve adopted at RIDOT, with skillful coordination of all our road and bridge projects,” RIDOT Director Peter Alviti, Jr. said. “At the Oxford Street Bridge, we replaced an entire highway bridge deck in one of the busiest stretches of highway in Rhode Island in less than two months with little traffic disruption. This is truly amazing.”
RIDOT replaced the superstructure of the 56-year-old Oxford Street Bridge over the summer. To do so, it used a series of lane shifts and lane splits that changed configuration on a near-weekly basis while they replaced the bridge one lane at a time. This approach allowed RIDOT to keep all lanes of traffic moving on the highway and shaved months off the construction schedule.
More than 160,000 vehicles per day travel over the bridge, according to RIDOT.