River from Fall River to Somerset
Commuters who travel over the Braga Bridge to and from Fall River should prepare for further rush hour delays for the next couple of years – yet another road project is set to begin this fall.
The latest work to occur along Interstate 195 will be a major rehabilitation of the Braga Bridge, which spans the Taunton River, linking Somerset, Mass. to Fall River. The bridge construction, which will start in early September, will reduce the six-lane bridge to four lanes – two in each direction – until the project’s scheduled completion in the fall of 2004.
Roughly eight miles down the road in Rhode Island, ongoing construction of route I-195 has been frustrating commuters for more than a year.
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The $8.6 million renovation of the Braga Bridge is necessary to install important safety improvements, said John Cogliano, acting commissioner of the Massachusetts Highway Department. The bridge is slightly more than one mile long, and approximately 70,000 vehicles per day drive the span 130 feet above the Taunton River.
“The bridge was built in 1965, and the last time the deck was replaced was in 1989,” said Cogliano.
But the bridge work will compound traffic delays for commuters who use I-195 to get to work in Massachusetts. As part of a massive relocation of that highway here in Rhode Island, construction has intermittently closed lanes from Providence to the Massachusetts border, and lanes are currently split on the Washington Bridge to avoid a work zone.
Utility construction contracts are under way for the relocation of the interchange of I-95 and I-195 with minor impact on traffic in the area of Wickenden Street in Providence, according the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.
In addition to repairing the concrete deck and repaving the driving surface of the Braga Bridge in Massachusetts, repairs will be made to the bridge’s steel joints and supports. Additional shielding will be installed below the bridge to protect it from the elements, said Cogliano.
The work will be done by Roads Corp. of North Billerica, Mass., which won the project on July 10 with a low bid of $8,310,855. Ninety percent of the cost of repairs will be paid for by the U.S. Department of Transportation, said Cogliano.
