/ Roads / RIDOT Completes Project Two Months Early, $300K Under Budget

RIDOT Completes Project Two Months Early, $300K Under Budget

Parul Dubey on September 20, 2017 - in Roads, Transportation

The Rhode Island Department of Transportation joined with state and local officials to celebrate completion in South Kingstown of its High Street and Kingstown Road Improvements project, which came in about two months ahead of schedule and $300,000 under budget.

It is another in a trend of state DOTs trying to accelerate projects to bring their benefits to users more quickly and cut costs.

“I’d like to congratulate our project management team for their diligent work that allowed us to finish this work early while staying on budget,” said RIDOT Director Peter Alviti. “And thanks to the funding provided by the RhodeWorks program, we can check two more roads off the list of bad roads in Rhode Island.”

RhodeWorks is the state’s transportation projects plan that is makes use of new, dedicated state revenues.

RIDOT said the two roads in the $6.5 million project “had historic street flooding problems, which contributed to deteriorated pavement conditions. The driving surface had gotten so poor that following the severe winter of 2015, RIDOT had to invest $81,500 to patch large sections of pothole-ridden roadway to keep it passable until this project could begin.”

South Kingstown Town Manager Stephen Alfred said that “these critical arterial/collector roads have suffered poor pavement and drainage conditions for many years.” Alfred praised the RIDOT project team, which he said “worked tirelessly in seeing that these much-needed improvements were completed, all for the betterment of the entire community – residents, businesses and visitors alike.”

In addition to drainage improvements, the project focused on pavement replacement, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant sidewalk installation, plus new signage and striping. RIDOT said it also installed flashing signs to call more attention to the school zone for passing motorists during normal school hours at the local elementary school.

RIDOT said it also expects to wrap up work soon on an additional project to minimize the impact of stormwater runoff from these roads into the nearby Saugatucket River. That $715,000 project involves installation of three stormwater treatment areas in the Saugatucket River watershed, and the agency said it “is on budget and on schedule, set to finish in November.”

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