U.S. Highway 6 - Rhode Island
U.S. Highway 6 varies between a surface highway and freeway on its cross-state routing of Rhode Island between Connecticut and Massachusetts. The federal highway travels along freeways between Interstate 295 and Interstate 95 at downtown Providence. U.S. 6 also shares pavement with Interstate 95 and 195 from Providence to Seekonk, Massachusetts.
First envisioned in a 1945 freeway plan for metropolitan Providence, the east-west freeway between Rhode Island 10 and Interstate 295 saw planning in the 1950s with completion envisioned by 1968. However with focus on Interstate 95 and 195 instead, work did not gather steam until 1968. Opened in 1971 as Rhode Island 195 in anticipation of an Interstate 84 designation, the freeway later became part of U.S. 6 in 1991.2
Unconstructed Interstate 84
The states of Connecticut and Rhode Island first brought up the idea of a limited access highway linking their respective capital cities in 1944. The idea gained enough steam to where the two states submitted the idea for inclusion in the 1956 Interstate Highway System, to which their proposal was denied. After rejection, the Hartford to Providence Interstate again came up for approval in 1968 when the Bureau of Public Roads expanded the Interstate network by an additional 1,500 miles. The route was approved and given the designation initially as Interstate 82, and shortly thereafter as Interstate 84. At the same time, the Interstate 84 designation gave birth to the Interstate 86 designation between Hartford and Sturrbridge, Massachusetts.2
Planning for the route involved construction of a freeway along the existing U.S. 6 roadway from Interstate 295 west to the Connecticut state line, and utilizing the existing Rhode Island 10 and 195 freeways. The plan even included an Interstate 184 designation for the Rhode Island 10 freeway leading south to Interstate 95 in Providence. To the west of Interstate 295, the U.S. 6 upgrade to a freeway was chosen over building a new facility in order to minimize impacts to the nearby Scituate Reservoir. However Environmental Impact studies conducted in 1975 were deemed insufficient for the route, and approval for the route was denied by 1979. At the same time planning for Connecticut sections of Interstate 84 were approved but contingent upon the Rhode Island section of the freeway.2
Therefore a new route was chosen that involved extension of the Rhode Island 37 freeway northwest from its terminus at Interstate 295 to the planned Interstate 84 route to Connecticut. Community opposition quickly organized and was strong against this routing, and so Rhode Island officials were left with very little choice and cancelled their section of Interstate 84 in 1982. Connecticut followed and withdrew its Interstate 84 mileage by 1983.2
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