Top federal highway official stops in Rhode Island to cheer on ‘Missing Move’ project

Planned over 60 years ago but deferred continually and never completed, the missing links have forced motorists to detour off the highways and onto secondary, local roads and through traffic lights before they can get back on the freeway.

The pair of turns, one to allow easy access from I-95 North to Route 4 South, and the other from Route 4 North to I-95 South, were set aside even as the rest of the highway became operational in 1972. Now the missing links are finally starting to take shape as part of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s (RIDOT) $144 million “Missing Move” project.

It was an excellent choice, as far as the feds are concerned.

“These new alignments…it’s going to be absolutely fantastically transformational from a congestion management standpoint,” U.S. Federal Highway Administrator Sean McMaster said Thursday after a tour of the future link between I-95 North to Route 4 South.

McMaster was in Rhode Island to join Gov. Dan McKee and members of the state’s congressional delegation for a firsthand look at one portion of the two-part project.

“These ‘missing moves’ were deferred,” Rhode Island Department of Transportation Interim Director Robert Rocchio said at the start of the tour. “They were planned. They were pushed out to a later date, and I don’t think they ever anticipated it would be this much later.”

Rocchio was standing in a large valley alongside I-95 in East Greenwich, addressing a crowd of officials, department employees and media, all donning hardhats and fluorescent safety vests. The site is visible evidence of the in-progress connection from I-95 North to Route 4 South, carved through a stretch of ledge that would have taken two years to dismantle with hammering techniques, Rocchio said.

“So, we decided to go with 30 days of blasting,” Rocchio said. “We did a lot of blasting.” He added that much of the blasted bedrock will be put to good use elsewhere on the project.

The future at-grade link between I-95 North and Route 4 South will be paired with what Rocchio described as a roughly 600-foot-long elevated bridge that will eventually carry Route 4 northbound traffic over the interchange and onto I-95 South. I-95 will be slightly realigned to accommodate the structure, Rocchio said, and the bridge’s support columns will rise from the median.

Currently, motorists must detour off the highway and onto secondary, local roads and through traffic lights before they can get back on the freeway.

“This eliminates all that,” Rocchio said.

Route 4 connects Route 102 to I-95 and carries about 63,000 vehicles each day, according to RIDOT.

When RIDOT broke ground on the project last year, an agency press release noted “numerous adjustments” the department had made to traffic signals in the surrounding area, all to compensate for the missing connections at the interchange.

Increased development and traffic at the nearby New England Institute of Technology campus only heightened traffic issues in the area, and the department noted about 60 crashes per year at the Division Street/South County Trail intersection to which travelers often resort without the missing moves.

Fixing the two missing connections has been on the state’s wishlist for years. A 2003 assessment took note of “No fluid movement from Route 4 North to I-95 South or I-95 North to Route 4 South,” with the missing moves noted as a problem for commuters and trucks traveling to and from Quonset’s Davisville area.

An additional portion of the project will add three ramps on Route 403 in North Kingstown and link the Quonset Business Park to the West Davisville area via a limited-access highway.

RIDOT began construction in winter 2025 and is expected to finish in fall 2027.

“This was the top project that was identified from Rhode Island, and you can see why when you see the amount of traffic right now on 95 and traffic behind us on 4,” McMaster said.

An $81 million federal grant awarded in January 2024 under the Joe Biden administration is covering more than half of the project’s costs, which were estimated at $135 million in RIDOT’s original grant application.

McMaster told reporters that President Donald Trump’s administration is “happy to support” the initiative, adding that the “amount of investment is justified.” McMaster pointed to the defense industry in Quonset as one example of why the project is worth subsidizing, because the new turns will help improve freight access.

“The freight movement along this corridor has been growing over the last couple of decades,” McMaster said. “This project is going to absolutely enhance that, and save not only Rhode Islanders tremendous pain from sitting in congested corridors, but it’s going to also have a positive net impact on the national economy.”

“From the federal government’s side, when we invest and when we support with American taxpayer dollars, this is exactly the type of charge and the impacts we would like to see,” McMaster added.

He estimated that the new connections could save motorists a combined 1 million hours in congestion each year, plus $1 billion annually in economic savings from reduced congestion.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the completion and maybe getting an invite back when this goes live here in another year,” McMaster said.

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