New lanes to ease traffic over Rhode Island’s Washington Bridge – The Boston Globe

Under the plans announced Wednesday, the temporary bypass lanes will get a 50 percent boost in capacity in both directions.

“We know that adding 50 percent capacity to what is there right now is going to save a considerable amount of time,” RIDOT Director Peter Alviti said at a State House news conference announcing the plan.

In originally announcing the closure, the state said it would take about three months to repair. That estimate went out the window weeks ago: After finding more problems in the bridge, the state now says it may have to replace the entire westbound span, and expects to get reports back on it by late February or early March. Meanwhile workers will now spend about the next eight weeks, depending on weather and other factors, reconfiguring the roadway in a way that would benefit commuters no matter what the ultimate outcome is on the westbound side.

Alviti on Wednesday declined to offer more specifics when pressed by reporters about when the state would know what would be required to get the westbound side back open again, or about the likelihood that it’ll have to be rebuilt.

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said putting the plan in place required studying feasibility, as well as getting federal approval, which is why it’s taken until now to do it.

The state is fitting the new lanes in by reducing their width by two feet, to 10 feet. Trucks will be restricted to the rightmost lane, which will be 11 feet wide. And the speed limit on the bypass lanes will be reduced to 40 miles per hour.

The DOT also said that because of the new eastbound configuration, traffic from South Water Street and India Street in Providence will need to yield when entering the highway, which could cause delays for drivers on the ramp to 195 east at rush hour.

Work will begin Monday with design and ordering materials, the state said. The construction will move the start of bypass lanes in East Providence about 3,000 feet west of where it is now.

State officials said the new traffic pattern should reduce travel times and ease spillover congestion on local streets, although exactly how much remains to be seen. Some people who are opting for different routes right now may go back on the bridge once the third lanes are open, which would increase traffic.

“It certainly will improve travel time,” said Governor Dan McKee, who also remarked that wasn’t going to talk about travel time as much as he had in the past, given the criticism of his previous statement that the closure was adding just 10 to 15 minutes to people’s commutes.

Brian Amaral can be reached at brian.amaral@globe.com. Follow him @bamaral44.