Both Lanes of Sakonnet River Bridge To Open Thursday

The Sakonnet River Bridge will officially open its northbound and southbound lanes to traffic this Thursday, reports The Providence Journal. 

The bridge's Route 24 northbound traffic first opened to traffic last week on Sept. 20 without an official ceremony. On Monday, Gov. Lincoln Chafee was expected to visit and tour the new infrastructure. 

Once all traffic has been shifted to the new bridge, work will continue on approach roads on both sides of the span. Demolition of segments of the old bridge must take place before this work is finalized.

RIDOT expects construction activities on the segments of Route 24 approaching the bridge to be ongoing through spring 2013.

All construction on the new bridge is expected to wrap up in 2013, including the opening of a bike path along the northern edge of the new bridge and the connecting paths to local streets on both sides of the bridge. Work on the bike path approach segments is expected to begin in Spring 2013.

The new Sakonnet River Bridge was slated to open in May, but structure safety concerns pushed back the deadline.

The project’s contractors, the Cardi Corp., are required by contract to pay the state $26,500 per day they go over the completion deadline. The bridge was expected to open on May 11. 

Have you driven over the new Sakonnet River Bridge yet? What do you think about the new bridge? Tell us in the comment section below!