Charles M. Braga Jr. Memorial Bridge

The Charles M. Braga Jr. Memorial Bridge is one of the longest bridges in Massachusetts and provides a critical link between Providence and Cape Cod. The main spans are a continuous Warren truss with verticals, while the approach spans are a steel girder and floorbeam system.

Planning for this bridge began in the early 1950’s as a way to ease congestions on the nearby Slade's Ferry and Brightman Street Bridges. It was also a way to carry the proposed Cape Cod Expressway over the Taunton River. This expressway was proposed 260-mile-long toll road connecting New York City with Cape Cod. The existing bridges in the area were double-leaf bascule drawbridges, but a high-level bridge was used for the new bridge to limit the impacts to traffic. Construction of the bridge started in 1959 and finished in the spring of 1966. The bridge is named after Charles M. Braga, who was a Fall River millworker that was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1989, the bridge underwent a major rehabilitation project. This included replacing the existing deck with a new lightweight deck overlaid with bituminous concrete. In addition, the structural steel was repaired and repainted, a concrete barrier was built in the center median, and “suicide fences” were added along the span. The bridge has rehabilitated again in 2003. The work was similar to the previous project, but it a latex additive was used on the top concrete layer of the roadway to resist water seepage and thus reduces cracking.

The bridge was rehabilitated again from 2013-2017. This project was an extensive project, which included replacing the bridge's 28 expansion beams, retrofitting the pin-and-hanger connections with steel boxed reinforcements, strengthening the concrete piers and cap connections to the roadway, and removing the existing layer of green lead paint and replacing it with several new coats of "Braga blue" paint.