Tiverton roundabout work to start this month

Casino can’t open until project complete

By Tom Killin Dalglish
Posted 8/3/17

TIVERTON — A plan at least 15 years old to build a roundabout at Tiverton's most dangerous intersection, a few hundred feet from the Fall River line, is about to come to fruition.

Work is set to start this month on the installation of the roundabout at the five-way intersection of William Canning Boulevard, Hurst Lane, Stafford Road, and the new entrance to the Twin River Casino now under construction.

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Tiverton roundabout work to start this month

Casino can’t open until project complete

Posted

TIVERTON — A plan at least 15 years old to build a roundabout at Tiverton's most dangerous intersection, a few hundred feet from the Fall River line, is about to come to fruition.
Work is set to start this month on the installation of the roundabout at the five-way intersection of William Canning Boulevard, Hurst Lane, Stafford Road, and the new entrance to the Twin River Casino now under construction.
A video simulation of the roundabout, showing the movement of traffic (no trucks are shown) around the roundabout can be found on the website of the consulting engineers (Bryant Associates).

No exact start date has been set. "We are poised to start construction in August, having already gone out to bid, and we have just one outstanding permit needed, with the RIDEM (Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management). They have been an excellent partner in this project in expediting reviews," said Patti Doyle, spokesperson for Twin River.
There's urgency in the start date. "We will not open that casino without the roundabout," Twin River CEO John Taylor told the Tiverton Council back in 2015, a stipulation he has since repeated several times. Mr. Taylor has also said the new casino will open in 2018
"If that roundabout isn't there, I can't see the casino because of the traffic problems," said then Town Council President Denise deMedeiros.
In previous testimony to the Town Council in 2014, when the roundabout matter was on the council agenda, RIDOT (Rhode Island Department of Transportation) Chief Civil Engineer Steven W. Pristawa said that — after bid — it will take about one building season to complete the project.
"Our timeline shows it can be accomplished on time," Twin River's lawyer Mark Russo told the council.
Meanwhile, anticipating the promised 2018 opening date, the town's newly elected Charter Review Commission is starting work on crafting charter language it hopes will conserve, for purposes it has in mind, the estimated $3 million in annual payments to the town by the casino once it is up and running.

Payment for roundabout, and cost

The cost and payment for the roundabout are unclear.
A few years back, the roundabout cost was pegged at $1.25 million. That was before the casino entrance/exit was part of the equation, and before the build-out of a multi-unit housing development and a Tedeschi gas station on William Canning Boulevard just north of the intersection.
The cost may now have risen.
"The State has budgeted $1.8 million," for the project. said Twin River spokesperson Doyle. "We remain confident that we will come under the amount the State agreed to reimburse of $1.8 million. But Twin River will finance the project, to be reimbursed by the Town which will be reimbursed by the State. That said, Twin River is fully responsible for the right hand turn lane [off the roundabout, to the west] into the casino. The Town will not incur any cost."
The as-bid roundabout construction cost projected by the winning bidder — Cardi Construction Companies, working on a subcontract with Gilbane Building Co., which is building the casino and hotel — is $1 million, said Ms. Doyle.
"The unique agreements between the state and the town and the town and Twin River allowed the roundabout to be bid in conjunction with the casino, so we could benefit from economies of scale." she said. "In turn, the casino is being bid as a fast track project with design being finished as work is already beginning."

Roundabout details

Signage during and after construction, detours, and traffic control are all matters being worked out, said Twin River representatives who appeared before the town council recently.
"There will be some lane closures here and there," said Todd Brayton of Bryant Associates, a consulting engineering firm working on the project.
There will be four stages of construction, he said: the first to the west of the roundabout, the second to the east, the third in the middle of the intersection, and the fourth being "clean-up work and work on the southeast section of the intersection."
"A lot of research has been done," Mr. Bryant said, "and roundabouts are a lot safer than regular intersections."
Years ago former Tiverton deputy police chief Nicholas A. Maltais said the intersection “traditionally has had the most accidents of any intersection in town.”
According to Robert Rocchio, at one time an acting managing traffic engineer for RIDOT, between 2002 and 2004 there were 48 accidents there, including a few in adjacent parking lots.
All that is expected to be a thing of the past.
The danger lies in the left turns across traffic that vehicles must make heading north on Stafford Road to get onto Canning Boulevard to go into Fall River or to access Route 24 in either direction.
And for drivers heading south, left-turns onto Hurst Lane across on-coming northbound traffic on Stafford Road and Canning Boulevard, presents additional hazards.
These complications will only be exacerbated by the presence of the entrance road to the casino at the intersection, which alone has been estimated to generate 3,000 cars daily.

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