RIDOT’s New Construction Plan Could Mean Chaos for East Side of Providence
Thursday, August 01, 2019
Get ready. A new plan by the Rhode Island Department of Transformation will take two of the Providence’s biggest traffic bottlenecks and combine them into one.
The new plan calls for the demolition of the Gano Street exit -- yes, the Gano Street exit that has been closed for more than a year undergoing millions of dollars of reconstruction -- and shift the traffic to the Henderson Bridge that enters the East Side of Providence onto the already-congested Angell Street.
De facto all the traffic that enters Providence by exiting on the Gano Street exit would be diverted to the one and two-lane Angell Street.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe project will begin in 2019 and is scheduled to be completed in 2024, according to a RIDOT plan.
A new off-ramp in East Providence is planned as part of the project.
Concerns Raised -- Public Meetings Urged
The new plan has sparked the concerns of residents.
“We are very concerned about how this plan to remove one of the primary means of accessing the East Side has progressed without input from residents who will be permanently affected by this change. We urge RIDOT to hold public meetings where different options can be discussed,” Josh Eisen, President of the College Hill Neighborhood Association, told GoLocal.
The implications are widespread. Trucks delivering to Brown University, RISD, Miriam Hospital, and retail areas like Thayer Street would all be forced to exit in East Providence and enter via the Henderson Bridge, or exit via South Main Street with downtown traffic -- the last exit before the 195 split.
Those attending concerts or festivals at India Point Park would need to take the East Providence exit -- or drive past and exit on the South Main Street exit and double back.
Commuters coming east into Providence have two paths into the city — South Main or enter Providence from the East Side via the Henderson Bridge — a bridge that is budgeted for replacement at a cost $70 million or the Gano Street off-ramp.
Plan Would Demo Gano Exit Now Being Rehabbed at the Cost of Millions
The RIDOT plan finalized in the past two weeks shows that the now being rehabbed Gano Street exit -- which in part of the $22 million Washington Bridge reconstruction program -- will be torn down.
Then, the plan is to build an entirely new on-ramp -- at the location of the current off-ramp.
RIDOT spokesman Charles St.Martin told GoLocal that he did not have a breakdown of the costs of the now ongoing Gano Street exit project.
A road construction expert tells GoLocal that the cost of the Gano Street exit rehab is in the millions.
“The work on the ramp is only a very small percentage of the cost of the entire Washington Bridge project. I don’t have a cost breakout for anything on the ramp by itself. The Washington Bridge project is scheduled for completion at the end of this year,” said St. Martin.
GoLocal has formally requested all costs associated with the Gano Street exit rehab.
Chaotic Project from the Begining
As most Rhode Islanders remember the closing of the Gano St. exit and related lane shifts created gridlock in Rhode Island for days in the summer of 2018.
The DOT closures backed up summer travel on I-195 and I-95 in both directions for hours each day. Governor Gina Raimondo ordered RIDOT Director Peter Alviti to correct the issues as the traffic nightmare began to become a political issue in her reelection effort.
St. Martin says the new plan will reduce congestion.
“The ramp is connected to the Washington Bridge project, which is addressing the substructure of the bridge. And the proposed improvements involve reconfiguring the off-ramp to serve as a new on-ramp from Gano Street to I-195 West. Many of the updated substructure elements would be used in the new ramp,” said St. Martin.
The state writes in its plan, “RIDOT requests $25 Million in BUILD Grant Assistance to meet structural sufficiency, to improve traffic flows and safety by eliminating dangerous queuing and bottlenecks, and to promote redevelopment of neighboring Opportunity Zones. The proposed Design-Build project, which has an estimated total cost of approximately $70 Million.”
“The first phase of construction will focus on the new on- and off-ramp structures. This phase involves the demolition of the original Gano Street Off-Ramp paired with the construction of the new Gano Street On-Ramp. The new Waterfront Drive Off-Ramp requires an overpass, which will also be constructed in Phase 1,” writes RIDOT.
The new report by RIDOT was first reported by WPRI.com.
