By Bruce Burdett

An earlier plan to close and rebuild 11 miles of the East Bay Bike Path has been replaced by something less ambitious.

Instead, the state Department of Transportation intends an approach of  “more cost-effective spot repairs.”

The first of these, an especially bumpy 133 feet of path in East Providence just north of Crescent View Avenue, will be tackled before winter if weather allows, says DOT spokesman Charles St. Martin. Rain postponed the job last week.

“The work should take a couple of days and will involve cutting out the pavement, removing some tree roots, repaving the area and putting down some seed where the grass was disturbed.”

Cost is around $22,500 and the job is expected to take a couple of days.

Other problem areas of the path will be addressed, he said, although no schedule has been announced.

Early this year, the state announced that 11 miles of the East Bay Bike Path — from Independence Park in Bristol to Riverside Square in East Providence — were to be closed during the summer for repaving work.

That project was prompted by the fact that considerable sections of the path are deteriorating and have become very bumpy, a DOT spokeswoman said at the time.

The $750,000 job was also to include some money for the elimination of the invasive plant species knotweed that has popped up along the edges of the path.

But Mr. St. Martin said budget issues and competing priorities, especially roads, bridges and other bike paths, are behind the change.

RIDOT with the Department of Environmental Management will continue to assess the path to determine areas most in need of work and will address them on a schedule to be announced.

Tree roots remain a major cause of bumps in numerous sections of the path, including the East Providence section about to be fixed.

Mr. St. Martin said that roots will be cut with a saw where necessary. Sometimes barriers are inserted to block roots but roots are persistent, he said.

Other especially bumpy areas include both ends of Barrington’s Brickyard Pond (tree root incursion), the area behind St. John’s Episcopal Church in Barrington center (roots), north Warren (side-to-side deep cracks), by Burr’s Hill Park in Warren (roots), and near the Bristol-Warren line (depressions).