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The Kingston railroad station in South Kingstown, Rhode Island

Kingston Station bridge replacement starts Nov. 20, closing part of Railroad Avenue

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Kingston Station in South Kingstown. Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Starting the night of Friday, Nov. 20, getting to Kingston Station will work differently, and it will stay that way for a while. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation is beginning to replace the bridge that carries Route 138 over the railroad tracks next to the station, a job the state says will run through the end of 2028.

The bridge will be rebuilt in halves. All Route 138 traffic shifts to the north side first while crews tear down and rebuild the southern half. After about a year, traffic moves onto the new section and the other side comes down, according to the RIDOT travel advisory issued Monday.

What changes at the station

The biggest change for riders is the entrance. A section of Railroad Avenue where it passes under Route 138 will close, and all traffic into the station will use the southern entrance on Railroad Avenue. RIDOT is removing the traffic island there so drivers coming from either direction on Route 138 can turn in, and a temporary traffic signal and crosswalks are going in at Route 138 and Railroad Avenue.

The state is also taking 10 spaces out of the northern overflow lot along that stretch of Railroad Avenue. Anyone who parks in the overflow lot will have to walk to the station using the new crosswalk at Route 138 and the Railroad Avenue sidewalks. RIDOT timed the work to start after it finished expanding the station lots last summer, a project that added 129 spaces for a total of 344.

Two other things to know:

  • The westbound left-turn lane on Route 138 at Fairgrounds Road goes away until the bridge is finished.
  • People driving in to ride the South County Bike Path can still use the main lot but are asked to park near the trailhead at the far end.

The advisory repeats a standing rule that University of Rhode Island parking is not allowed at the station. URI sent the same notice to its campus community on Monday because the work sits on the main road into the Kingston campus. RIDOT has posted a map of the new access pattern at ridot.net/DetourMaps.

Part of a bigger Route 138 job

The bridge is the first visible piece of RIDOT’s $82.3 million Route 138 Corridor project, which also covers new sidewalks, signal upgrades and repaving from Route 2 (South County Trail) to Route 108 (Kingstown Road). The road work is still being designed, and the state hopes to start it later in 2027, with the whole project finished in spring 2029.

Kingston is South County’s rail stop for Amtrak and a RIPTA bus connection point. For a rundown of the trains and buses that use it, see our guide to Kingston Station connections. RIDOT notes that the schedule and scope of any construction can change with weather and conditions in the field.

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