NORTH SMITHFIELD – The Rhode Island Department of Transportation has announced that Route 146 will be closed, from Route 116 to Route 99, two nights this week for bridge work.
The work is part of an $196 million project to improve a section of the highway in North Smithfield and Lincoln that began last year. The project includes the removal of the traffic signal where Route 146 meets Sayles Hill Road and construction of a bridge so the highway can pass over the intersection.
More than 171,000 vehicles travel Route 146 between Providence and Worcester each day and the intersection, which marks the only traffic signal on the highway in the state, averages more than 85 crashes per year.
The section from Route 116 to Route 99 will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday nights, December 12 and 13, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., according to a release from RIDOT.
Additional road closures this week include the Route 146 Service Road South, from Route 99 to Route 116, and Exit 18A off I-295 South, on Sunday and Monday nights, December 10 and 11; and the Route 146 Service Road North, from Route 99 to Route 116, and Exit 18B off I-295 North, on Thursday, Dec. 14. Motorists are instructed to follow signed detours.
RIDOT noted that there will also be alternating lane closures this week for bridge work on I-295, at Route 146, Sunday-Thursday nights from 9 p.m.-6 a.m., and for road work on Route 146, from Route 99 to Route 146A, Sunday-Thursday nights from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and from Route 146A to the Massachusetts line, Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The project, which also includes removing u-turns and paving eight miles of roadway, is expected to be complete in 2026.
