This duplex with old shields leads down to the end of both routes at US 1.

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Just north of RI 112 and the 2/112 duplex, an old alignment serves as a driveway at either end, and then traipses through a forest in the middle. Come take a walk (or brisk jog, as the case was) with me...


Bearing left from RI 2 North into the repaved part of the old alignment, which disappears into some thick and thorny underbrush. I, however, am wearing clothes thicker than the thorns...


Continuing into the forest, where all of the pavement is gone, but the roadbed remains well-graded with little growth in it. All of the trees and bushes you see are coming from either side of the old road and leaning in.


Looking back south toward my car parked in the southern stub; even though I'm only a few feet away, and even though the leaves aren't out yet, the underbrush is thick enough to obscure a 2-ton shiny blue object.


Out of the forest and onto the northern section of the old alignment, which still has original pavement and is slowly being reclaimed by Nature.


Looking north at RI 2, with the old alignment merging back in.


Turned around south again, and walking back toward the forest. As you can see, the northern section is used in two pieces and abandoned between them, but the pavement is continuous.

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The Great Swamp Fight, thankfully for Rhode Island historians, happened not too far from the beaten path. Click for a closeup of the other side.


SB at MA RI 4, for the first time. The second one will be better.


For a little while between the two RI 4 interchanges, RI 2 is four lanes and concrete. Pity more of the highway doesn't look like this.


More Massachusetts errors. This time, the 2 almost got sucked in, but RIDOT managed to save its shield. "For once," you expect me to say.


I think this is worth it, yes. The northbound signage at the same interchange, obviously dating to the beginning of RI 4.


SB, with one of the four shields at the intersection itself still not yet ruined, but the real gem to be found north of those.


Just like in the photo atop this page (taken just south of here), the new, wrong font appears. The TO is also wrong. RI 3 used to continue straight on a duplex with 2; RI 2 followed what's now RI 10 and 3 ended at US 1 where RI 2 now ends.


Cowesett Rd. WB, which becomes Cowesett Ave. on the other side of RI 2 and also becomes RI 3. These shields (including the northbound one in the previous photos) are unusual, but I don't think they're quite old enough to pretend they predate the "R.I." in the shield.

Also wrong, RI 115 EB.


NB - the I-95 shield is a little strange even for RIDOT, but that's probably because this is a one-piece assembly.


This is how they do it in RI. A little too lazy to cut it all out (or to get the right shapes - these look like South Park caricatures). Northbound at RI 113 and then at I-295 itself.


Southbound past RI 5. The dilapidated Warwick Mall sign had either been replaced or removed by 2007, which is when I finally returned to this area and took/retook most of the photos on this page.


A pair of ancient signs on RI 2 SB at its junction with RI 5. This is a left exit because New London Ave., which had been 2 to this point, continues straight on down to 5. In fact, after RI 5, RI 2 quickly has a junction with RI 33, which picks up the course of New London Ave. This is the same old turnpike that continues in fits and starts (many pieces have gone back to forest), becoming RI 3 and CT 184 on its way to, gee, New London.


Decent signs of a decent age, northbound, but with a New Jersey border around the US 1 shield.


Uniquely wrong shapes on the SB LGS, not to mention overly rounded corners and the strange case of the TO being larger than the actual destinations listed.


This shield has seen better days. In fact, it saw much better days as an ENTERING PROVIDENCE sign. I would guess that original sign had black text on a white background, since while I can see the outlines of the letters (and so can you!), the rest of the recycle job looks to be holding up.

SB in Cranston.

Old-style H.

Onto RI 4
Onto I-95
Onto RI 3
Onto RI 113
Onto I-295
Onto RI 5
Onto RI 37
To US 1
Onto RI 12
Back to Rhode Island Roads
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