Spanning nearly 27 miles (43 km), it forms a western beltway around Providence, Rhode Island, and is a bypass of I-95 as it travels through the capital city.

I-895 was proposed as a complementary eastern beltway to complete a full loop around the city in the 1960s but was ultimately scrapped in the 1980s.

[citation needed] I-295 serves as a partial circumferential highway around Providence, bypassing the city to the west and north.

Exit 6 for Route 14 is next, known locally as Plainfield Pike, which defines the border between Cranston and Johnston.

After another cloverleaf interchange (exits 15A and 15B) with Route 7, the highway begins a gentle curve eastward toward Massachusetts.

The original intention was to have I-295 act as a full ring road around the Providence metropolitan area with the alignment roughly following Rhode Island Route 37 across Narragansett Bay and continuing in a northern direction with a major interchange located at I-195 exit 2 in Swansea, Massachusetts, before heading west toward Attleboro.

In 2016, it was announced that both Rhode Island and Massachusetts interchanges were to receive new exit numbers based on route mileage in accordance with federal standards.