Interstate 195 (Rhode Island–Massachusetts)

Interstate 195
East Providence Expressway
Map of southern New England with I-195 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by RIDOT and MassDOT
Length:	44.23 mi[1][2] (71.18 km) 4.3 mi (6.92 km) in RI[1] 39.93 mi (64.26 km) in MA[2]
Existed:	1958 – present
Major junctions
West end:	I‑95 / US 6 in Providence, RI
	US 44 in Providence, RI Route 24 in Fall River, MA Route 140 in New Bedford, MA
East end:	I‑495 / Route 25 in Wareham, MA
Location
States:	Rhode Island, Massachusetts
Counties:	RI: Providence MA: Bristol, Plymouth
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main Auxiliary Suffixed Business Rhode Island Routes Massachusetts State Highway System Interstate US State ← I‑184 RI Route 195 → ← Route 193 MA Route 197 → ← I‑95 I-95E, RI Route 96 → ← I‑95 I-95E, MA Route 96 →

Interstate 195 (I-195) is an Interstate Highway running a combined 44.23 miles (71.18 km) in the U.S. states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. It travels from a junction with I-95 in Providence, Rhode Island, east to a junction with I-495 and Route 25 in Wareham, Massachusetts. It runs east–west and passes through the cities of Fall River, Massachusetts, and New Bedford, Massachusetts. I-195 is occasionally referred to as the East Providence Expressway, but the name is not commonly used outside of the Providence area.

I-195 provides a major direct highway route from New York to Cape Cod via I-95 through Providence as well as for travelers coming from Connecticut, western Massachusetts and other Rhode Island points. Its major junction with I-95 in Downtown Providence provides a direct connection, since improved with the section in downtown Providence being replaced and moved to the south to lie just south of the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier.

Route description

I-195 begins at I-95 at a semi-directional T interchange, known as the Iway Project. The road begins concurrent with US Route 6 (US 6). From there it continues across the Providence River via the Providence River Bridge where it picks up US 44 and US 1A. The road continues into East Providence and all three roads respectively leave the freeway. From there it enters Seekonk, Massachusetts and continues east to Fall River where it has a brief concurrency with Route 24. It then continues through southeastern Massachusetts passing through New Bedford where it has an interchange with Route 140. From there it turns northeast and ends at I-495 and Route 25 with a trumpet interchange.

History

I-195 in Fall River, photo from 1968

MA-79 split at I-195 near the Braga Bridge

Predating I-195 were two sections of road—Fox Point Boulevard and the Washington Bridge. The Washington Bridge, crossing the Seekonk River between Providence and East Providence, was opened on September 25, 1930, replacing an 1885 swing bridge with a higher bascule bridge. A new eastbound bridge opened in November 1968.^[3]

Fox Point Boulevard, later George M. Cohan Boulevard, was a surface boulevard connecting the Washington Bridge west to the Point Street Bridge and downtown Providence. It was built with no cross traffic by using U-turn ramps in the median to reverse direction. This was the last part in Providence to be built as a freeway, opened in December 1968.

The first freeway section came off the west end of Cohan Boulevard and over the Providence River, ending at the one-way pair of Pine Street and Friendship Street, which opened in November 1958. The ramp to Pine Street has been closed, but the entrance from Friendship Street still exists. The I-95 interchange at this end opened in fall 1964; the Pine Street ramp was kept for a while.

The next section to be constructed was the part in East Providence. It opened to the last exit before the state line on December 15, 1959, and was extended into Massachusetts by August 1960.

Before the Interstate Highway System numbering was decided upon, I-195 was planned as a relocation of US 6; in fact, all but the last section was signed as US 6 when built (the first section only eastbound though). In 1957, the number Interstate 95E was assigned, as all intercity routes were numbered before the three-digit Interstate numbering was chosen, and the Providence-New Bedford route was too long to be considered intracity. The I-195 designation was assigned in 1959 with the final numbering. At some time after 1976, the definition of I-195 was extended east to I-495 (which was itself extended).

I-195 still carries US 6, now in both directions, from I-95 to the last interchange before Massachusetts. It also carries US 1A and US 44 over the Washington Bridge and its approaches, though the former has almost no signs.

The Providence River Bridge, prior to being demolished due to realignment of Interstate 195, carried traffic to its western terminus with Interstate 95.

Iway

I-195's stretch through Providence was reconstructed because of sharp curves and the way the road cuts through part of the city. The relocation made the segment safer for traffic, reunified the Jewellery District with Downcity Providence, and freed up more space. In the process, some 35 buildings, housing over 80 businesses and six residences were demolished.^[4] The new stretch of highway is called the Iway by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and includes a signature bridge over the Providence River^[5] as well as a landscaped pedestrian walkway over the highway. It connects India Point Park to the Fox Point neighborhood. The IWay was opened in 2009 and estimated to have cost $446 million. The demolition of the old road is to be completed by 2012.^[6]

Exit list

All interchanges in Massachusetts were to be renumbered to mileage-based numbers under a project scheduled to start in 2016, however that project now has been indefinitely postponed by MassDOT.^[7][8] All interchanges in Rhode Island will be renumbered to mileage-based numbers by 2018 under a plan announced by RIDOT in March 2016.^[9]

State	County	Location[2]	mi[1][2]	km	Exit[10]	Destinations[10]	Notes
Rhode Island	Providence	Providence	0.00	0.00	–	I‑95 north / US 6 west – Boston, MA	Western terminus of and concurrency with US 6; exit 20 on I-95
			0.40	0.64	1A	Point Street	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
			0.80	1.29	–	I‑95 south – New York City	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; exit 19 on I-95
					1B	Eddy Street	To Rhode Island Hospital; westbound exit only
		Providence River	0.80– 1.00	1.29– 1.61	Providence River Bridge (Iway)
		Providence	1.10	1.77	2	Gano Street / India Street	Eastbound exit only
			1.30	2.09	2	US 44 west / US 1A south (South Main Street)	Western terminus of concurrency with US 1A / US 44; westbound exit and eastbound entrance
			1.50	2.41	3	Gano Street – India Point	Westbound exit and entrance
		Seekonk River	1.60– 1.80	2.57– 2.90	Washington Bridge
		East Providence	1.80	2.90	4	US 44 east (Taunton Avenue) – Riverside	Eastern terminus of concurrency with US 44; eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			1.90	3.06	5	Route 103 east (Warren Avenue)	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; west end of Route 103
			2.40– 3.10	3.86– 4.99	6	Warren Avenue / Broadway / Pawtucket Avenue – East Providence	Westbound access to US 44 and Route 103
			3.30	5.31	7	Route 114 south – East Providence, Barrington	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance via flyover ramps
			3.50	5.63	8	US 6 east / US 1A north to Route 114 north (Pawtucket Avenue) – Seekonk, MA	Eastern terminus of concurrency with US 6 / US 1A; eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			4.30 0.000	6.92 0.000	Rhode Island–Massachusetts state line
Massachusetts	Bristol	Seekonk	0.581	0.935	1	Route 114A – Seekonk, Barrington, RI
		Swansea	4.621	7.437	2	Route 136 south – Warren, RI, Newport, RI	Northern terminus of Route 136
			7.470	12.022	3	US 6 to Route 118 – Swansea
		Somerset	9.849	15.850	4	Route 103 / Lee's River Avenue – Somerset, Ocean Grove	Signed as Exits 4A (west) and 4B (east) westbound
		Taunton River			Charles M. Braga Jr. Memorial Bridge
		Fall River	11.984	19.286	5	Route 79 / Route 138 – Taunton, North Tiverton, RI
			12.439	20.019	6	Pleasant Street (westbound) / Hartwell Street (eastbound) – Downtown Fall River	Shared ramp with Exit 7
			12.711	20.456	7	Route 81 south (Plymouth Avenue)	Northern terminus of Route 81; shared ramp with Exit 6
			13.769	22.159	8A	Route 24 south – Tiverton, RI, Newport, RI	Western end of concurrency with Route 24
			14.609	23.511	8B	Route 24 north – Taunton, Boston	Eastern end of concurrency with Route 24
		Westport	15.354	24.710	9	Sanford Road – North Westport	Eastbound exit only
			16.343	26.302	10	Route 88 south to US 6 – Horseneck Beach	Northern terminus of Route 88
		Dartmouth	19.433	31.274	11	Reed Road – Hixville, Dartmouth	Signed as Exits 11A (south) and 11B (north) westbound
			21.979	35.372	12	Faunce Corner Road / Faunce Corner Mall Road – North Dartmouth	Signed as Exits 12A (south) and 12B (north) westbound
		New Bedford	23.768	38.251	13A	Route 140 south to US 6 – New Bedford, Dartmouth
			23.778	38.267	13B	Route 140 north – Taunton
			24.627	39.633	14	Penniman Street	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			25.087	40.374	15	Route 18 south – Downtown New Bedford	Southbound exit to Route 18 south; northbound entrance from Route 18 north
			25.367	40.824	16	Washburn Street	Eastbound exit and entrance
			25.632	41.251	17	Coggeshall Street	Westbound exit and entrance
		Fairhaven	27.251	43.856	18	Route 240 south – Fairhaven	Northern terminus of Route 240
	Plymouth	Mattapoisett	30.911	49.746	19A	North Street – Mattapoisett
			30.922	49.764	19B	North Street – North Rochester
		Marion	35.133	56.541	20	Route 105 – Marion, Rochester
		Wareham	39.233	63.139	21	Route 28 – Wareham, South Middleboro
			39.911	64.231	22A	Route 25 east – Cape Cod	Western terminus of Route 25; Exit 1 on Route 25
			39.93	64.26	22B	I‑495 north – Marlborough	Southern terminus of I-495; Exit 1 on I-495
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access

See also

• Massachusetts portal
• Rhode Island portal
• U.S. Roads portal

References

1. Google (January 19, 2016). "East Providence Expressway" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
2. MassDOT Planning Division. "Massachusetts Route Log Application". Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
3. Archived November 5, 2004, at the Wayback Machine.
4. Sabar, Ariel (October 3, 1999). "Highway Blues". The Providence Journal. Archived from the original on March 6, 2004. Retrieved May 12, 2008.
5. Staff (2006). "Moving and setting the Iway I-195 Providence River Bridge". Rhode Island Department of Transportation. Retrieved September 26, 2006.
6. "195 Relocation Background". Providence College. Retrieved May 26, 2007.
7. Commonwealth of Massachusetts (2015). "COMMBUYS - Bid Solicitation FAP# HSIP-002S(874) Exit Signage Conversion to Milepost-Based Numbering System along Various Interstates, Routes and the Lowell Connector". Retrieved January 6, 2016.
8. Robert H. Malme (2016). "Massachusetts Interstate Current and Future Exit Lists". Retrieved October 10, 2016.
9. WPRI Eyewitness News (2016). "RI Set to Renumber All Its Highway Exit Signs". Retrieved March 30, 2016.
10. Massachusetts Department of Transportation. "Exit Numbers and Names: Route I-195 (Seekonk to Wareham)". Retrieved August 21, 2014.

External links

Route map: Bing / Google

• RIDOT - Relocation of the I-95/I-195 Interchange
• Kurumi
• Bostonroads.com - East Providence Expressway
• Bostonroads.com - I-195 in Massachusetts
• Mass. I-195 Current and Speculative Future Exit Numbers List