The RhodeWorks plan to repair roads and bridges was approved by the Rhode Island General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Gina M. Raimondo on February 11, 2016. The legislation (2016-H 7409Aaa, 2016 - S 2246Aaa) creates a funding source that will allow the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) to repair more than 150 structurally deficient bridges and make repairs to another 500 bridges to prevent them from becoming deficient, bringing 90 percent of the State's bridges into structural sufficiency by 2025.
RIDOT has started work on a $24 million design-build project to replace the East Bay Bike Path bridges over the Barrington and Palmer Rivers. The bridges, which date back to the 1880s, have been closed since 2019 because they were badly deteriorated and it was not safe to keep them open.
The latest Safe Routes to School project makes it easier and safer for the students of Kickemuit Middle School and Hugh Cole Elementary School in Warren to walk or ride a bike to school. It is part of a series of projects under the federally funded Safe Routes to School program. In a three-year span of newer projects we will have invested $12.2 million into the program.
When it rains heavily, Schoolhouse Road in Warren floods. In the same area, both Schoolhouse Road and Birch Swamp Road have severely deteriorated pavement. Both of these issues and more will be addressed by a $6 million pavement reclamation and reconstruction project that started on August 6, 2021.
RIDOT has numerous projects as part of the Safe Routes to School program, which make it easier and safer for children and their families to walk or ride to school.
The fully federally funded program has been active for more than a decade. In a three-year span of newer projects we will have invested $12.2 million into the program.
The Silver Creek Bridge, which carries Hope Street (Route 114) over Silver Creek, is part of a critical access road into the heart of downtown Bristol. Without it, tourists cannot access the town and local businesses and schools would be subject to constant congestion. Built in 1922, this tiny (16 feet long) but important bridge was rated structurally deficient and posted at only 17 tons. It had to be rebuilt.
* All construction projects are subject to changes in schedule and scope depending on needs, circumstances, findings, and weather.