Rhode Island Route 138

Route 138 is a numbered State Highway running 48.3 miles (77.7 km) in Rhode Island. It is the longest state numbered route in Rhode Island, and the second longest highway after US 1. Route 138 begins in Exeter at the Connecticut state line in the west and runs to the Massachusetts state line in Tiverton in the east, and is the only state-numbered route to completely cross Rhode Island. Route 138 also keeps the same route number on the other side of both state lines.

Route 138 is a major thoroughfare in southern Rhode Island. The route ultimately connects Interstate 95 and the University of Rhode Island campus with the island town of Jamestown, the city of Newport, as well as the Tiverton-Little Compton coastal region. At the Massachusetts border in Fall River, the route continues as Massachusetts Route 138, which extends north into the Greater Boston area.

Route 138 takes the following route through the state:

Route 138 used the Stone Bridge over the Sakonnet River until 1954.

Before the opening of the Jamestown section of the Route 138 Expressway in 1994, Route 138 came off the Jamestown Bridge and used Eldred Avenue (which has now been partially cut off by the expressway) and East Shore Road to the Newport Pell Bridge. As of 2005, there is still a Route 138 reassurance marker northbound on East Shore Road just north of the Newport Pell Bridge.

Prior to the construction of the Route 138 Expressway in North Kingstown, Route 138 used Bridgetown Road east of US 1 in South Kingstown, then north on Route 1A into North Kingstown, then along an access road to the Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge which was upgraded on the spot to the Route 138 Expressway.

There are two abandoned temporary ramps at the west end of the Jamestown Bridge used by through traffic in the early 1990s. These ramps connected through traffic to the old bridge while the new one was being built. The new Jamestown–Verrazzano Bridge opened in 1992. These ramps have since been converted into access points to the local beaches.

The Route 138 Expressway was intended to extend west to Interstate 95.