Abandoned brown and orange railroad bridge over I-95 coming down

Another piece of Rhode Island's abandoned transportation infrastructure – this one a familiar piece of scenery on millions of daily commutes each year – will be gone by the fall.

The state Department of Transportation this month began tearing down the Pawtuxet Valley Railroad Bridge over Interstate 95 and Wellington Avenue in Cranston.

The old bridge, brown with orange at either end, has been unused since being abandoned by the Providence and Worcester Railroad in 1991.

Whatever hopes there were for reusing it, either as a railroad or a rail-to-trail bike path, had mostly faded by the time the DOT decided to tear it down.

Removing the bridge is expected to cost $1.2 million, DOT spokesman Charles St. Martin said. The job includes taking out the steel span and the concrete piers holding it up, plus filling in the embankment on the side of the highway.

History of the bridge

The bridge was built in the 1960s to carry the Pontiac Branch section of the Pawtuxet Valley Railroad over the newly built interstate highway cutting through Cranston.

The Pontiac Branch Railroad, incorporated in 1875, ran from Cranston's Pontiac neighborhood to Auburn, where it connected to the tracks that would eventually become Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (then the New York Providence and Boston). By 1880, it linked up with and became part of the Pawtuxet Valley Railroad, which ran along the river through the mills of West Warwick to the village of Hope, according to research from Cranston resident Daria Phoebe Brashear.

More: The end is near for East Providence's India Point Railroad Bridge to nowhere

The Pawtuxet Valley Railroad changed ownership multiple times in the 20th century. Passenger service was phased out as automobiles became popular and the connection between the West Warwick and Cranston sections was severed.

The Providence and Worcester Railroad acquired the Pontiac to Auburn section in 1976 and ran freight on it until 1991. The state bought it in 1993.

St. Martin said the DOT decided to tear down the railroad bridge now as part of an effort to beautify the I-95 corridor between Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport and downtown Providence.

This demolition in Cranston comes as other abandoned railroad bridges around the state are meeting a similar fate, like the orphaned piece of bridge over the Seekonk River in East Providence, which was scrapped by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earlier this year.

The state was considering removing the Crook Point Bascule Bridge in Providence before now former Mayor Jorge Elorza intervened. It is unclear what the future holds for that bridge now that Elorza is gone.

Brashear said the idea of using the Pontiac Branch right of way to connect eastern Cranston to the Washington Secondary Bike Path, also a onetime rail line, had at one point been part of the State Bike Plan.

St. Martin confirmed that studying reuse of the old Pontiac rail line was included in the state's 2009-2010 list of future projects, but no money was ever allocated for it.

"The old railroad right of way runs through established neighborhoods so developing it would be challenging," St. Martin wrote in an email.

You can see the path of the old right-of-way from above, a green line of trees running through the residential streets of Auburn to Garden City, but it runs into more recent construction around Chapel View, Route 37 and the Pastore Complex.

In an application for a federal grant to rebuild Route 37 corridor, the DOT said it is studying a bike route from Chapel View to the Washington Secondary Bike Path.

There will be overnight lane closures on I-95 to provide space for demolition, St. Martin said, but no full highway closures.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Pawtuxet Valley Railroad Bridge over I-95 being torn down