Rhode Island Route 10 - History

History

Despite the first section opening in 1953, the Route 10 designation was not used until 1966, when the freeway south of Route 2 (Reservoir Avenue) opened. The 1953 section was the Olneyville Bypass (also known as the Dennis J. Roberts Expressway, now also applied to U.S. Route 6 west of the bypass). Construction began in 1950 on the bypass of the congested Olneyville neighborhood, which the east–west U.S. Route 6 and Route 14 passed through (on Westminster Street, Hartford Avenue and Plainfield Street). The bypass ran from Hartford Avenue west of Olneyville around the south and east sides of Olneyville, junctioning with Plainfield Street, Huntington Avenue, Westminster Street and Broadway, and ending at Harris Avenue northeast of Olneyville.

Once the bypass opened in 1953, it carried US 6. Eastbound US 6 exited at Westminster Street to follow its old alignment towards downtown, but westbound US 6 was completely rerouted between downtown and Olneyville, following Kinsley Avenue, Eagle Street and Harris Avenue to reach the Olneyville Bypass.

The next section, from Olneyville south to Reservoir Avenue in Cranston, was built partially along the existing Huntington Avenue, and opened in 1960. It ended at a temporary trumpet interchange with Reservoir Avenue, which at the time carried both Route 2 and Route 3. (Route 3 has since been truncated to its intersection with Route 2 in West Warwick.) Route 2 was rerouted onto the new Huntington Expressway to end at US 6 at Olneyville, while Route 3 continued to run to U.S. Route 1 in Providence.

The rest of the early Huntington Expressway, from Route 2 southeast across Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1 to Route 12, was completed in 1966. It was then that the Route 10 designation was applied, and Route 2 was moved back to its present alignment. However, Route 10 did not end at Olneyville - it continued to the end of the bypass at Harris Avenue, and then took Harris Avenue, Eagle Street, Valley Street, River Avenue, Oneil Street, Veazie Street and Branch Avenue to end at Route 146.

The Route 12 interchange was not the planned end of the freeway; it was to continue roughly parallel to Route 117 and Route 117A, meeting Route 37 and ending near the south end of Route 117A.

For a time, Interstate 84 was planned to enter Providence via Olneyville. One plan by the state designated the Huntington Expressway south of Olneyville as Interstate 184, but this was rejected by the Federal Highway Administration.

The first section of the Route 6-10 Connector, from the east end of the Olneyville Bypass to Dean Street, opened in 1972. At that time, Route 10 was removed from its former surface alignment to a temporary end at Dean Street. The ramp it had taken northbound to Harris Avenue was cut by the new construction; the abutments for the bridge over the Northeast Corridor and northbound Harris Avenue are still in place. U.S. Route 6 westbound was not moved, continuing to enter the Olneyville Bypass from Harris Avenue. A new ramp from Tobey Street to the bypass was added, replacing a removed left entrance from Broadway. The ramp from US 6 east to Westminster Street was also closed around this time, leaving its ramp to Broadway.

The other part of the Connector opened in 1988, connecting the Huntington Expressway and Olneyville Bypass to Interstate 95 in downtown Providence. US 6 was rerouted along the Connector and I-95 to reach Interstate 195. The ramps to downtown, connecting to Memorial Boulevard, did not open until 1993, as part of the redevelopment of downtown.