Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee outlined on Dec. 26 the improvements the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) made in the past year to strengthen the transportation infrastructure system.
“Rhode Island continues to steadily make gains in improving our transportation system, and our Department of Transportation is making these changes at a rapid pace, carefully balancing traffic impacts during construction to get us to new, better roads, bridges, sidewalks and bike paths,” McKee said.
Highlights include:
RIDOT finished projects on I-95 in southern Rhode Island, I-295 from Johnston to Warwick, Route 1 in Charlestown, Boston Neck Road in North Kingstown and Narragansett, Aquidneck Avenue in Middletown, and South County Trail in Charlestown and South Kingstown.
The agency awarded $20 million in state funds to fix local roads. All 39 cities and towns participated, contributing two-thirds of the cost of their projects for a total of $74 million invested.
Crews completed retrofits to five existing stormwater treatment units, installed new stormwater treatment units in the Greenwich Bay Upland watershed, and cleaned and maintained more than 12,000 catch basins.
RIDOT replaced multiple bridges including the Wellington Avenue Bridge and the Route 37 East Bridge. The percentage of structurally deficient bridges dropped to less than 15 percent.