Route 37 opened in 1965 at the height of the highway-building boom. In total it was a three-and-a-half mile stretch of pavement through mostly non-residential land from Cranston to Warwick. Route 37, however, was meant to be part of a broader plan.

As more roads were built, it would continue east, first to the western shore of the Providence River, either at Conimicut Point or Gaspee Point, then across a bridge into Barrington and then up to Attleboro.  It would have given Providence a beltway.

Of course, putting pavement down in mostly undeveloped land was far easier than paving through suburban areas of Warwick, Barrington, and East Providence – not to mention bridging the river. So, given the opposition from these residential areas, the plan stalled out – as did a subsequent plan to avoid a new bridge and continue the beltway down through Newport. What remained was some unused Department of Transport right-of-ways, some preliminary earthworks for the unbuilt highways, and the three and a half miles of Route 37. 

Route 37 has evolved into a high-volume corridor between I-95, I-295, and Post Road, seeing 42,000 vehicles per day. And now, after decades of having improvements fall through, Route 37 is getting a $100 million rehabilitation, thanks to a $25 million federal grant. The grant augments $55 million in already secured federal funds and $20 million from Rhode Island Capital Plan funds.

One of the most significant changes in the reconstruction will be the oversized interchange where Route 37 ends at Post Road. The current design is a cloverleaf layout, with 37 going on an overpass above Post Road. 

The state’s grant proposal has identified two main problems with the current design: first, the overpass currently has large cracks snaking up each of the supporting columns. As a stop-gap, wooden supports are stacked up like massive Lincoln Logs between each column. While it’s structurally sound with the supports, propping up this important bridge is not a long term solution. 

Second, the state says the interchange is unsafe, with high speeds and crashes as ramps merge with Post Road. The acute angle of the current design means that drivers entering Post Road have to look over their shoulders merging into traffic coming from behind, with no runway in front of them. According to the Warwick Police Department, there have been 16 accidents since January 1 at the interchange. That’s down from 19 last year and 28 at this time in 2021. Warwick Police Sergeant Aaron Kay says that in terms of safety, the interchange “has been a problem as long as anyone has been there.”

The solution, with construction beginning in 2026, will be to transform the complex multi-leveled system into one at-grade stoplight intersection. For those concerned that this kind of intersection will increase traffic, the grant proposal outlines a number of high tech solutions, including queue jump lanes, adaptive signals (which adjust light times based on traffic), and TSP (Transit Signal Priority – which allows public transit vehicles to communicate with and be given priority by traffic lights). These measures will be implemented at every traffic light on the Post Road stretch from Elmwood Ave. to Airport Road.

During the construction process, the state plans to construct an additional lane on Post Road to ease traffic. Even if traffic does increase during construction, road-users may find it a worthwhile trade-off if the new system is able to cut down on the multi-block jam-ups that currently occur on Post Road. 

Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi is in agreement with the plan, having submitted a letter to the US Department of Transportation in February stating that the city “ardently supports” the plan to reconstruct what Picozzi in the letter calls “the most vital east-west link in our transportation infrastructure both for our city and for the state of Rhode Island.” 

Though the plan is endorsed by the city, it is under state control, and will be mostly within the RIDOT’s right of way. Warwick’s planning director Tom Kravitz says that his department has only had a surface-level concept meeting with the state regarding the Route 37 reconstruction. Kravitz says that in the meeting, his department asked that the new intersection include another point of access to the industrial park on the north side of Airport Road. This point of access could, for instance, be a connection from the Route 37/Post Road intersection to Minnesota Road. Kravitz believes this would redirect traffic – especially large trucks – and ease pressure on the Airport Road/Post Road intersection. RIDOT Spokesman Charles St. Martin said the connection mentioned by Kravitz will not be in the project.

As a whole, Kravitz says that the new at-grade intersection is “definitely an important safety improvement.”