The SPMT is back in Warwick, this week and as best as research can tell this is only its third visit to Rhode Island.

The SPMT could qualify as the slowest vehicle on the road with speeds – if it can be called that – of less than a mile per hour. But speed is not the SPMT’s forte, nor is it expected to be fast. Rather, it is known for its muscle. Specifically, its ability to lift hundreds of tons at a time and in this case an entire bridge.

The self-propulsion modular transport – or, in construction lingo, the SPMT – will take center stage over the next eight days as three new Interstate 95 bridges are moved into place only hours after the old ones are demolished. The bridges – two over Centerville Road and the third over Toll Gate Road – are all part of the 2016 $4.7 billion RhodeWorks program to repair or replace 500 bridges over 10 years.

What makes these three bridge projects different from the just about every other being done by the Department of Transportation is that they are design-build projects meaning that in place of DOT engineers designing a full project and then advertising for construction bids, the DOT advances a concept with about 10 percent of the design. Contractors interested in the project take it from there, coming up with additional plans and a bid to do the job. Contractor for the three bridges is MIG.

Lori Fisette, DOT’s acting administrator for project management, said design-build fosters innovation and allows for flexibility.

In this case, the contractor has built the bridges on both sides of Interstate 95 over the last year that the SPMT will lift and then move into place as soon as the old ones are removed – the highway equivalent of pulling a tooth and replacing it with an implant, only this is all going to happen in days.

Work will start May 28 at 7 on the Interstate 95 northbound lane bridge over Centerville Road. Northbound traffic will be funneled into a new lane between the divided highway. Traffic in both directions will be reduced from four to three lanes during the duration of the project. Working around the clock in two shifts, crews will start demolishing the northbound bridge on Friday. That work should be completed by Sunday, setting the stage for the SPMT on Monday. The SPMT will move the new bridge all of several hundred feet lifting it into place. After installation, a paving crew comes into action and the major part of the work will have been completed, only to be repeated for the other bridges.

Fisette said replacement, rather than repair, was the only option of addressing the structurally deficient bridges over Centerville and Toll Gate roads. Conventional piecemeal demolition and construction would have tied up traffic for months, taken longer and cost more, Fisette said.

“The reality is it would have been a multi-year design and construction,” she said.

She estimated the projects would have taken an additional two years to complete during which time traffic would have been restricted on one of the most heavily traveled sections of I-95 with 179,000 vehicles daily.

The pandemic has not impacted the construction schedule or $25.3 budget, but it has resulted in a 40 percent reduction in traffic. Fisette said less traffic would make it easier for motorists on I-95 even though the project was designed to handle the pre-pandemic volume.

Traffic on Centerville and Toll Gate roads will either be routed around the area or under 95. Attention has been given to ensure access to Kent Hospital on Toll Gate Road, assured DOT spokeswoman Lisbeth Pettengill.

According to a DOT release, Centerville Road traffic will be shifted depending on which bridge span is being worked on. During construction on the Toll Gate Road bridge, traffic on Toll Gate Road will be detoured to Centerville Road and Commonwealth Avenue. Either Toll Gate Road or Centerville Road will be open to traffic at all times during construction.