$500K Aquidneck traffic study launched

MIDDLETOWN – With the roar of traffic on West Main Road sometimes drowning out their words, federal, state and local officials gathered this morning to announce the launch of a $500,000 study designed to improve transportation in the Aquidneck Island towns of Middletown, Portsmouth and Newport.

The setting for the news conference was outdoors in front of the John F. Kennedy Elementary School, near a traffic light on West Main Road, an appropriate place at which to discuss the heavy traffic and congested roads that plague Aquidneck Island every summer. As official after official took to the podium underneath an open-sided white tent, some of their comments were lost to the rumble and rattle of trucks, boat-haulers and cars whizzing by.

Some 30,000 vehicles travel West Main Road on average every day, according to statistics provided by AIPC. Between 2005 and 2007, there were more than 2,100 motor vehicle accidents at more than 200 locations in the study area. During the summer traffic volume on Aquidneck Island increases by anywhere from 5 to 20 percent.

The Aquidneck Island Planning Commission (AIPC) is launching the study, entitled “Aquidneck Island: On the Move, Connecting our Communities,” which the commission said will be the “first-ever comprehensive multi-modal transportation plan for the entire island,” addressing automobile, pedestrian, bicycle, bus, train and water-ferry transit.

The $500,000 funding for the two-year study comes from the Federal Highway Administration, the R.I. Department of Administration’s Statewide Planning Program and the R.I. Department of Transportation (DOT).

“The study is a results-oriented project, with measurable outcomes, that will have both fast-track up-front solutions and long-term recommendations,” said Tina Dolen, AIPC executive director. “I cannot overemphasize how vital public participation will be, and our workshops and Web site will continually seek feedback from those who use Aquidneck Island by driving, walking, bicycling, riding the bus, the train or ferries.”

“The public,” Dolen said, “will ensure the study is grounded in real-life experience on the roadways.” Four public workshops will be held during the study process, with the first scheduled in September on a date to be announced.

Also, interactive online surveys will be conducted to obtain community input, the AIPC said, and community volunteers will be enlisted to take a more active role in the study’s formulation.

Public interest groups and stakeholders that will be interviewed as part of the study process include municipal officials, the state police, Old Colony Railroad, Newport Dinner Train, Grow Smart Rhode Island, the Sierra Club, bicycle groups and advocacy organizations for the elderly and disabled.

The AIPC has hired the Providence consulting firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. to conduct the study, guided by a steering committee of federal, state, regional and local agencies and officials. The AIPC also retained as project manager John Burke, a former transportation director for the cities of Evanston, Ill., and Portsmouth, N.H.

The study is scheduled to be completed by April 2011, but AIPC noted that “fast-tracked recommendations will emerge prior to the completion date.” The study will include forecasts of transportation conditions to the years 2020 and 2030.

The study will look at the entire island, including the Naval Station in Newport, Routes 114 and 138, America’s Cup Avenue, Admiral Kalbfus Road, Memorial Boulevard, Burma Road, Coddington Highway and Valley Road or Route 214.

Among those offering remarks at this morning’s news conference were Gov. Donald L. Carcieri; Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport; Peter Osborn, a Rhode Island native who is division administrator for the Federal Highway Administration; Michael P. Lewis, DOT director; and Kevin Flynn, associate director of the state department of administration, division of planning, housing and community development.

“We believe by creating an improved and multi-modal transportation corridor system on Aquidneck Island, that everyone will benefit,” Osborn said. “When roadways work, the economy improves because access to industry, commerce, recreation and tourist attractions becomes safer and smoother.”