What will I-95 North in Providence look like after redesign? A look at the new pattern

UPDATE: The new traffic pattern is set to open on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2023.

PROVIDENCE − The state's contractor has scrapped a Dec. 1 start date for the next big phase of the Interstate 95 North project through downtown Providence due to construction delays.

When the next phase does begin, the northbound interstate through downtown Providence will resemble the final version of the project, with a service road splitting off traffic bound for Route 146 and the state offices exit.

"Right now, it's been postponed until after the holidays," Department of Transportation spokesman Charles St. Martin said. "If the weather allows, they may be doing it as early as after the new year."

What's the new plan for I-95 North through downtown Providence?

When the new traffic pattern starts, the two left lanes of I-95 will carry through traffic while Route 146 traffic will exit the freeway in the right lane.

The life-changing interstate: How Interstate 95 became integral to life in Rhode Island, from Hopkinton to Pawtucket

Those two left lanes of I-95 will split off well in advance of the current Route 146 entrance and go straight through, with no exits, until Branch Avenue.

The right lane will split off into a "collector distributor" road, intended to distribute traffic exiting to Route 146 and the state offices exit and collect traffic from Route 6/10 and downtown headed either to Route 146/state offices or to I-95 North.

While the current configuration shows a three-lane interstate with one lane for Route 146, renderings of the final project show two lanes splitting off to the right for the Route 146/state offices exit.

"People need to make sure they're prepared to make that choice for Route 146 sooner than they have to do it now," St. Martin said.

The collector distributor road parallel to I-95 will initially have three lanes, and a fourth lane will be added next year, St. Martin said.

What's a collector distributor road?

The central idea behind the redesign of I-95 through downtown Providence is to use a collector distributor road to separate all the people leaving and entering the freeway in a stretch that gets especially congested from the two left lanes of traffic.

"What's happening today is a vehicle can be in any lane on 95 North, and that's why we're seeing that weaving, as people weave over to take the Route 146 exit," St. Martin said. "There's a lot of conflict at the end of the bridge today."

A one-page explainer from Texas A&M University says that the primary purpose of collector distributor roads is to "move the weaving and lane changing away from the high-speed traffic on the freeway mainlanes."

Moving exiting traffic onto the side road before the exit, or before multiple exits, eases pressure on through traffic.

The collector distributor road is no stranger to Rhode Island roadways, as they are already on I-95 North around Route 37/Jefferson Boulevard and I-95 North in Pawtucket near School Street and the downtown exits.

"With the viaduct project, the grant funding was not just to replace the bridge, but for other changes, including correcting the chronic congestion problems," St. Martin said.

Route 6/10 traffic will enter I-95 via service road

Traffic from Route 6/10, which is undergoing its own reconstruction, will first join the collector distributor road, along with two lanes of traffic split off from I-95 bound for Route 146 and the state offices exit.

That traffic will also be joined by those trying to get onto the freeway from the downtown exit next to Providence Place.

A single lane from the collector distributor road will then allow traffic from Route 6/10 and the downtown interstate ramp to merge onto I-95. Currently, Route 6/10 and the downtown entrance share a single lane as they merge onto the highway, but drivers must contend with I-95 traffic trying to exit to Route 146 just after the merge.

"We expect that traffic to go freely," St. Martin said.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New I-95 North configuration in Providence postponed to after holidays