Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge

This article is about the current bridge. For the original and now demolished structure, see Jamestown Bridge.

Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge
The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge in August 2009
Coordinates
Carries	Route 138
Crosses	West Passage of Narragansett Bay
Locale	North Kingstown, Rhode Island to Jamestown, Rhode Island
Characteristics
Design	post-tensioned, double-cell concrete box girder
Material	concrete
Total length	7,350 feet (2,240 m)
History
Opened	1992

The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (often misspelled Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge) spans the West Passage of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, United States. It is part of Route 138 and is part of the route to Newport, Rhode Island for traffic heading northbound from Interstate 95.

The bridge is a post-tensioned, double-cell concrete box girder bridge with four travel lanes separated by a concrete Jersey barrier (the original bridge consisted of two undivided lanes). The total length of the bridge is 7,350 ft (2,240 m) and links the towns of North Kingstown, Rhode Island and the island town of Jamestown, Rhode Island. Despite being only 15 years old at the time, the bridge was listed as structurally deficient in 2007 due to small cracks found in some of the box girder segments. The cracks were repaired in 2008.

Bicycles are not permitted on the bridge as a part of a limited access highway, but Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus #64 has bike racks without Sunday service.

History

Construction on the bridge began in 1985, and it was completed in 1992. It was built alongside the Jamestown Bridge, which had served the same route since 1940. The older bridge was demolished in April 2006.

The bridge is named for Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano.

External links

• Steve Anderson's Bostonroads.com: Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge (RI 138)
• Inspection and Maintenance of the bridge
• Bridge history