Rhode Island opened three new highway ramps Friday that connect Route 403 more directly with Quonset Business Park and the Route 1 commercial corridor, completing the business-park portion of a broader $144 million transportation project.
The new links were omitted when Route 403 was built more than two decades ago. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s opening notice says they now carry traffic from West Davisville Road to Route 403 east, from Route 403 west to West Davisville Road, and from Route 1 to Route 403 west toward Route 4.
RIDOT also installed a roundabout at West Davisville Road and Compass Circle and added new signals, lane markings and signs. The department says the changes are intended to shorten trips, simplify truck access and move business-park traffic away from local streets. The work gives freight and passenger vehicles more direct options at a site that has grown substantially since the highway’s original construction.
The ramps form one half of the state’s “Missing Move” program. Farther north, crews are constructing direct connections from I-95 north to Route 4 south and from Route 4 north to I-95 south. RIDOT’s project page lists fall 2027 as the completion target for the full program, which spans North Kingstown and East Greenwich and is designed to avoid detours.
Route 4 was built in 1965 and now carries about 63,000 vehicles a day. Without the two interstate movements, some drivers have had to use indirect connections at one of Rhode Island’s busiest highway junctions, while Quonset-bound freight has relied more heavily on surrounding roads.
The total cost is supported by an $81 million federal Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant. Planning also received a separate $4 million federal award that advanced engineering and environmental review, according to the state’s grant record. The larger program includes drainage, water-quality treatment, broadband and intelligent-transportation improvements in addition to the five highway ramps.
The economic stakes extend beyond a local interchange. Quonset’s 2025 impact report counted 15,309 direct jobs at more than 260 companies, including 9,881 manufacturing jobs. It estimated the park generated $7 billion in statewide economic output and supported 29,455 direct, indirect and induced jobs.
Those figures come from a Quonset Development Corporation analysis using state labor data and economic modeling, so they are estimates rather than a direct count of every downstream job. Even so, they show why freight access is a statewide policy concern: the park includes manufacturing, warehousing, wholesale trade, construction and the Port of Davisville, with businesses depending on predictable truck movements.
Friday’s opening does not finish the project. Construction near I-95 and Route 4 continues, and RIDOT says overnight lane closures will be needed for sign foundations and other work. But the three Quonset ramps are now in service, delivering the first completed operational segment of the state’s long-planned missing connections.
