Agreement on Pawtucket Avenue construction plan in East Providence stalls

State pumps brakes on proposal

By Mike Rego
Posted 4/18/18

EAST PROVIDENCE — Not so fast.

The much ballyhooed and anticipated collaborative effort between the city and state to reconstruct the tattered sidewalks and roadway on an approximately two-mile …

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Agreement on Pawtucket Avenue construction plan in East Providence stalls

State pumps brakes on proposal

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — Not so fast.

The much ballyhooed and anticipated collaborative effort between the city and state to reconstruct the tattered sidewalks and roadway on an approximately two-mile portion of Pawtucket Avenue is apparently no more.

Seemingly signed, sealed and about to be delivered some time beginning this summer, Ward 3 Councilor Joe Botelho told the rest of the body at its meeting Tuesday night, April 18, the agreement wasn’t as far along as thought and likely left hanging in limbo.

The much ballyhooed and anticipated plan when announced called for East Providence to pay for the improvements to the state-owned road upfront with the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to reimburse the city over a period of years.

Then City Manager Tim Chapman told the council at its January 2 meeting an agreement in principal was reached on the proposal between the city and state. East Providence would pay for the repairs using some monies set aside from its fiscal year synchronization fund, which was originally slated for use to align the city’s financial calendar with that of the state. The council previously approved using approximately $3 million in sync fund dollars for the project.

Mr. Chapman said the city would be repaid by the state through federal highway funds, about $1.4 million in FY2019. The remainder would be reimbursed from the state by 2025, but he was seeking to have it paid back by 2022 if not sooner. The streets in city were not included as part of RIDOT’s current “RhodeWorks” initiative. The state was unlikely to attend to the affected roads until at least 2026 if not later.

The supposed plan between East Providence and RIDOT, done in two phases, called for sidewalks and road beds to be repaired on Pawtucket Avenue north at Gregg’s Restaurant south to Silver Spring Golf Course, east on Warren Avenue from South Broadway to the Massachusetts state line and east on Taunton Avenue from its intersection with Pawtucket again to the state line.

The council, then, continued the process when it approved a memorandum of agreement between the sides at its February 7 meeting. Part of the approval also allowed for the city to soon seek Request For Qualifications from contractors seeking to perform the construction.

In providing an overview to the council that evening, Mr. Chapman said the city would like to do the repairs during the upcoming paving season. He continued, “The goal is to be on a good, quick, fast track to start the project this summer.” He noted, however, the timetable is still dependent, in part, on state requirements, “but the hope is for it to start sooner rather than later.”

According to Mr. Botelho, however, it was the state which pumped the brakes on the project.

After reaching out to all the signatories of the agreement, he was informed no final determination on the proposal had in fact been made by RIDOT.

Mr. Botelho pointed to an email he received from Nicole Pope, RIDOT’s director of government and legislative affairs, who responded to his inquiry by writing, “Please be advised the agreement between the City of East Providence and RIDOT is still under review. We will keep you apprised on the matter. Thanks.”

“I kept asking for a signed agreement back. I wanted to see it signed, but for some reason I never got it back,” Mr. Botelho explained incredulously last week. “Then I received an email from the DOT saying it’s now under review. I don’t understand how you come to an agreement but it’s still under review. ”

He added, “Then last week, I received another email, saying, ‘Oh, we’ve changed our mind. We’re not doing it now.’”

Mr. Botelho went on to explain his exasperation on the subject comes from years of attempting to have Pawtucket Avenue refurbished, something he said hasn’t been done in earnest since the roadway and sidewalks were first installed back in 1940 as part of the Works Projects Administration, a key element of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s historic effort to remove the country from the depths of The Great Depression.

It wasn’t the only rebuff received by the city from the state recently.

Mr. Botelho also said last week RIDOT had informed him a sign at the intersection of Wampanoag Trail and Pawtucket Avenue denoting the Kent Heights section of the city, which he said was erected two years ago, must be removed from the state-owned traffic island.

A message from a RIDOT official said the Kent Heights Neighborhood Association, which put the sign in place, must apply for use of the island through the state’s “Adopt A Spot program,” though Mr. Botelho said the organization of which he is a part had “engaged for over a year with absolutely no result.”

“So, evidently, it’s been a bad stretch for Kent Heights. I don’t know what to tell you,” Mr. Botelho added last week. “I know this is the city council and these are state-owned properties. I just figured we could help them get something done, take it off someone else’s plate, but apparently we can’t even do that.”

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MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.