DOT hires Swedish firm for 146 rebuild

State awards contract for $167 million project to overhaul key northern RI artery

PROVIDENCE – Swedish construction and development firm Skanska won a $167 million contract with the Department of Transportation to rebuild Route 146.

Skanska will be partnering with JH Lynch, a Cumberland-based construction company, for the project, which was initiated two years ago with a federal grant. Skanska’s portion of the contract is $84 million, according to a company press release.

DOT pursued a “design-build” approach to Route 146, awarding a single contract for Skanska to both design and construct certain elements of the project. The approach is intended to accelerate the project’s timeline.

“Some of the design work will happen as they’re ramping up construction,” said Charles St. Martin, a DOT spokesperson.

The project has several facets, including significant repaving work, but one of the highlights is reconstructing the intersection at Sayles Hill road. The new version will feature an overpass that replaces the traffic light. That intersection averages more than 85 crashes per year, according to the DOT.

While some initial construction is scheduled to begin this spring, St. Martin said people may only see limited signs of it as the design phase is completed. He added that preliminary paving between Route 99 and the Massachusetts border in areas with especially bad conditions will start this summer.

“They’re active, they’re working, but you may not see it,” St. Martin said.

DOT also contracted with Skanska for another large project, replacing the northbound section of the Providence Viaduct Bridge. For that project, Skanska partnered with the Connecticut-based construction company Manafort Brothers Inc., and their winning design for the new bridge saved a year of time and about $1 million, according to the DOT.

That $265 million project began in 2020 and is still on-going, but St. Martin said it has remained on-time and on-budget.

The two projects are being funded by federal Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grants secured with help from Rhode Island’s

congressional delegation. U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, authored the INFRA grant program, which passed as part of the FAST Act in 2015.

Both projects are scheduled to be completed in 2025.

File photo by Ernest A. Brown The state has awarded a contract for the planned reconstruction of Route 146, including a reconfiguration of the highway’s troublesome intersection with Sayles Hill Road in North Smithfield.