Truckers Continue to Be Fined at I-95 Bridge Crossing in R.I.

Truckers are continuing to get slapped with fines of up to $3,000 for crossing a bridge on Interstate 95 in Rhode Island that has been off-limits to big rigs for more than two years, the Providence Journal reported.

More than 20,000 trucks have been stopped in the Seekonk River crossing in Pawtucket, R.I., since November 2007, with an average of more than 400 per month this year alone, the Journal said.

Total fines levied since the ban began have totaled almost $7 million in the past two and half years, the paper reported in a front-page story Thursday.

The ban on vehicles weighing more than 18 tons or with more than two axles has been in place since November 2007. (Click here for previous story.)

Most of the fines have been $3,000 penalties to the trucking companies and $85 tickets to drivers for not following multiple detour signs set up miles away on I-95 and other roads feeding into the main north-south passage through the state, the Journal said.

Some trucking companies have apparently continued to dispatch trucks through the area without being aware of the ban, the paper said, which has frustrated some truck drivers.

The bridge, in Pawtucket between I-95 exits 27 and 28, is scheduled to be replaced by a new, $90-million span by June 2013, the Journal said. Construction on the new bridge is expected to begin this year, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation said on its Web site.

RIDOT recommends that trucks traveling on I-95 with destinations in Attleboro, Mass. and north, or Warwick, R.I. and south, use I-295 to avoid the bridge.

RIDOT says trucks with destinations in the Providence metropolitan area, or in Rhode Island’s East Bay region, should use I-295 South to Route 146 South, reconnecting with I-95 in Providence with access to I-195 East.

Click here for more detailed detour information. (RIDOT Web site.)