The Rhode Island Department of Transportation received some good news last week, and so too did bike path enthusiasts.

On Wednesday, Aug. 31, U.S. Senator Jack Reed announced that Rhode Island would be receiving $48.5 million in additional federal funding for transportation infrastructure upgrades. 

And shortly after that news broke, Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti announced that the state would be using $9 million from the additional funding to rebuild the East Bay Bike Path bridges.

“Once again, Senator Jack Reed and the Rhode Island delegation have secured funds to expedite bringing Rhode Island’s infrastructure into a state of good repair,” Alviti said. 

“We will use these funds to first, backfill the gap in the actual cost of the East Bay Bike Path bridges with $9 million so we can rebuild both bridges and the remainder we will use for pavement preservation, a priority of Governor McKee.”

The money comes from the Federal Highway Administration’s annual August redistribution. Each year, the Federal Highway Administration shifts transportation funding authority from states unable to utilize the full amount of funding originally authorized to them, as well as from federal transportation grant and loan programs that were underutilized in the current fiscal year, to states that have shovel-ready projects and are able to utilize the funding before the end of the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.

Sen. Reed said that process resulted in good news for Rhode Island.

“It means an extra $48.5 million in federal funding for road improvements and infrastructure upgrades throughout Rhode Island,” Sen. Reed said. “I commend Director Alviti for his strategic and cost-effective management to help modernize our transportation network and put these federal funds to work completing projects ahead of schedule.”

Bridge background

The East Bay Bike Path bridges have been on the state’s radar for years. 

The DOT ordered the bike path bridges closed in 2019, after inspections revealed structural deficiencies — wooden timbers were rotting, metal supports rusting, and in some sections, supports or cross beams had washed away with the tides.

The state, which had earlier fenced off the sidewalks on the bike path bridges frustrating some fishermen, made the decision to close the bridges and re-route bicyclists, joggers, walkers and other bike path enthusiasts onto the nearby vehicle bridges. 

People criticized the move and called the detours unsafe. Residents and local officials, including Rep. Jason Knight, were concerned that the Rhode Island Department of Transportation was content with turning the temporary detours into permanent ones. The state had dedicated more than $1 million to improve the detours after town officials spoke out about safety concerns. The upgraded detours included wooden boardwalks on the vehicle bridges and the installation of plastic barriers along the roadway. 

“When they proposed the detour improvements, DOT was pretty enthusiastic,” Rep. Knight said. 

During a presentation offered by the DOT detailing the upgraded detours, town officials asked the state engineer if the department of transportation would commit to rebuilding the bike path bridges, but the engineer said the state would not do so. 

Rep. Knight and others, including former Barrington Town Manager Jim Cunha, pleaded for the DOT to rebuild or repair the existing bike path bridges. 

“We told them it was not going to work as a permanent option,” Rep. Knight said of the detours. “The resounding response from people was ‘No way.’”

Meanwhile, Rep. Knight and other legislators introduced legislation calling for a $20 million appropriation from the state to the DOT for the sole purpose of repairing or replacing the bike path bridges. (The legislation never made it out of House Finance Committee.)

The DOT had initially dedicated $10 million in the T.I.P. (Transportation Improvement Program) for the bridges, believing that the work would cost that much. But in 2020, DOT Director Alviti confirmed that the project estimate was closer to $25 million. He said the state did not have the funding for the work. 

Public outcry and pressure from legislators may have turned the tide with the project, however. Last year, state officials announced that an additional $5 million for the bike path bridges had been earmarked in the 2022 U.S. Senate Appropriations bill. That pushed the total available funding to $15 million, and in late 2021 the DOT issued an RFP (request for proposals) to rebuild the bridges. 

The amount of dedicated funding for the East Bay Bike Path bridges grew to about $24 million last week when the DOT earmarked the additional $9 million from the Federal Highway Administration’s annual August redistribution. The bike path funding was nearly a fifth of the total August redistribution.

Charles St. Martin, a spokesman for the DOT, said state officials are moving forward with the procurement process for the project.

“Yes, we intend to apply the August redistribution funds to the project cost,” St. Martin said. “We are still in the procurement phase and haven’t awarded a contract yet to the design-build team so we won’t have those details until the award is made.”