Starting tonight, Wednesday night, December 22, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) will make traffic pattern changes on the Route 6/10 Connector Outbound and temporarily close the Harris Avenue on-ramp to Route 6 West.
The split on the Connector for Route 6 West and Route 10 South will be moved several hundred feet south of its current location, to the vicinity of the Broadway overpass. In doing so RIDOT will close another section of the Huntington Avenue Viaduct, the old elevated portion of highway leading to Route 6 West. Traffic heading to Route 6 will instead use a new bridge passing over a future on-ramp and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.
As the Harris Avenue on-ramp also brought traffic onto the old Huntington Avenue Viaduct, it needs to be closed. Motorists will follow a detour though Olneyville Square via Broadway, Westminster Street and Hartford Avenue. A new on-ramp from Harris Avenue will be built as part of this project and open in approximately one year.
RIDOT does not expect traffic delays on the Route 6/10 Connector because of the shift of the traffic split but encourages drivers to reduce their speed and drive carefully through the work zone. Traffic using the Harris Avenue on-ramp is light, so RIDOT does not expect its closure will cause significant delays in Olneyville.
With all traffic removed from the old highway segment, RIDOT will demolish it and continue construction on the rest of the interchange.
The removal of the old Huntington Avenue Viaduct was one of the original goals of the project to lower highway through-traffic in and out of Providence below the city streets. This design feature, along with the widening and reconstructing of three highway overpasses, minimizes the impact of the highway on the community, eliminates the negative aesthetics of having an elevated highway passing over city streets, and provides greater connectivity between the Federal Hill and Olneyville neighborhoods.
A detour map for the Harris Avenue on-ramp and more information on the Route 6/10 Interchange Project can be found at www.ridot.net/610.
All construction projects are subject to changes in schedule and scope depending on needs, circumstances, findings, and weather.
The replacement of the Route 6/10 Interchange was made possible by RhodeWorks, RIDOT's ongoing commitment to repair structurally deficient bridges and bring Rhode Island's transportation infrastructure into a state of good repair, promote economic development, and create jobs. Learn more at www.ridot.net/RhodeWorks.