The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge spans the West Passage of

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is part of Rhode Island Route 138 and is on the route to

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

for traffic heading northbound from Interstate 95.

Construction and design

The bridge is named for Italian explorer

Giovanni da Verrazzano Giovanni da Verrazzano ( , , often misspelled Verrazano in English; 1485–1528) was an Italian ( Florentine) explorer of North America, in the service of King Francis I of France. He is renowned as the first European to explore the Atlanti ...

. Construction began in 1985 and was completed in 1992, originally consisting of two undivided lanes and built alongside the Jamestown Bridge which had served the same route since 1940. The older bridge was demolished in April 2006. It is a post-tensioned, double-cell concrete

box girder bridge A box girder bridge, or box section bridge, is a bridge in which the main beams comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite of steel and re ...

with four travel lanes separated by a concrete

Jersey barrier A Jersey barrier, Jersey wall, or Jersey bump is a modular concrete or plastic barrier employed to separate lanes of traffic. It is designed to minimize vehicle damage in cases of incidental contact while still preventing vehicle crossovers resu ...

. It links

North Kingstown, Rhode Island North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. The population was 27,732 in the 2020 census. North Kingstown is home to the birthplace of American portraitist Gilbe ...

with the island town of

Jamestown, Rhode Island Jamestown is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island in the United States. The population was 5,559 at the 2020 census. Jamestown is situated almost entirely on Conanicut Island, the second largest island in Narragansett Bay. It also includes the u ...

, with a total length of . It has a walkway on the north side, but it is not accessible to the public . The bridge was listed as structurally deficient in 2007, despite being only 15 years old at the time, due to small cracks found in some of the box girder segments. The cracks were repaired in 2008. Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge 2015

References

External links

Steve Anderson's Bostonroads.com: Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge (RI 138)

Inspection and Maintenance of the bridge

Bridge history
{{Narragansett Bay Road bridges in Rhode Island Narragansett Bay Bridges in Newport County, Rhode Island Bridges in Washington County, Rhode Island Box girder bridges in the United States Concrete bridges in the United States Buildings and structures in Jamestown, Rhode Island Buildings and structures in North Kingstown, Rhode Island Bridges completed in 1992 1992 establishments in Rhode Island