Viaduct plan gets biz backing

COURTESY DOTIN TRANSIT: The Providence Viaduct carries Interstate 95 past downtown, over Route 6 and the Woonasquatucket River and north toward Pawtucket. The bridge is slated for a $169 million reconstruction.
COURTESY DOT IN TRANSIT: The Providence Viaduct carries Interstate 95 past downtown, over Route 6 and the Woonasquatucket River and north toward Pawtucket. The bridge is slated for a $169 million reconstruction.

You don’t need a $179 million bridge-replacement project to cause traffic jams on Interstate 95 in downtown Providence. The car volume and traffic patterns on the stretch of highway between the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and the Statehouse do that already.
So it would be natural if business owners closest to the Providence Viaduct, the creaking 1,300-foot-span home to some of the worst traffic in the state, were wary of plans to spend six years replacing the structure in a way that isn’t expected to solve the congestion issues.
But in what may be a sign of how familiar Rhode Islanders may have become with roadwork on I-95, business reaction to the recent announcement that work on the Providence Viaduct replacement project is set to start next spring has been mostly positive.
“I look at it like pregnancy – pain with a purpose,” said Kelly Coates, senior vice president of Carpionato Group LLC, which owns the Harris Avenue property on which the Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse sat before it was torn down, one of three pieces of private property that the state says will be directly touched by the construction.
“It is difficult, but when you get through it there will be a great outcome,” said Coates, adding that state transportation officials have been in recent contact with the company over the project. “I think the key impact is that if I-95 is not corrected, you won’t be able to utilize it and all of the property values in the area will be affected.”
The Providence Viaduct, actually three separate spans carrying I-95 over, among other things, West Exchange Street, railroad tracks, Providence Place and the Woonasquatucket River, is deteriorating to the point that pieces of concrete have begun falling off.
Although still safe in the short term, the Viaduct has been identified as a priority by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which awarded a $10 million federal grant to get work started within the year.
“We absolutely support the project – the worst thing you could do is do nothing,” said Daniel Boudoin, executive director of The Providence Foundation, the business-backed group focused on bringing economic activity to downtown, especially the Capital Center. “I think R.I. Department of Transportation has a pretty good track record. They did a good job with the I-195 relocation project and did a good job of reaching out and keeping everyone informed.”
The Providence Foundation is heading up efforts to coordinate communication between DOT and businesses closest to the project, Boudoin said. “Sure there is concern, and we will come up with a plan,” Boudoin said. “I expect DOT to form a stakeholders group to stay in touch with the community. That is what they have done in the past, and we have suggested it.”
State transportation engineers acknowledge that the size, scope and sensitive location of the Viaduct – 160,000 vehicles a day use it – will aggravate the existing congestion at times during the four-phase project.
“The exits will be tough while we are working on them, especially Exit 22 southbound and the Exit 22 on-ramp where it is already congested,” said DOT Engineer Bob Pavia. “It will be a headache. The other ramps, the volumes are not as big and it shouldn’t be as bad.”
Although larger and involving a different kind of bridge, the Viaduct replacement in many ways will resemble the ongoing Pawtucket Bridge replacement project, which also involved building a third span and then shifting existing traffic around to keep it flowing while the old structures are demolished and new ones completed.
The first step in the Viaduct project will be building the new southbound span. While southbound cars are using the new bridge, northbound cars will be placed on the old southbound highway while the old northbound span is demolished. The third and fourth phases are the construction of a new northbound span and, after traffic is routed onto it, demolition of the old northbound structure.
While this is going on, the four Exit 22 ramps will all at least partially be rebuilt, although some of them involve more work than others.
For the replacement of the southbound exit and Route 6 ramp, which will happen during the first phase of construction, DOT will build a temporary ramp to the west by the Foundry and Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse property.
Pavia called replacement of that ramp one of the most difficult parts of the project and one where drivers could see the greatest traffic impact.
Work on the southbound off-ramp by the former C.J. Fox Building will not include a temporary ramp, but will be replaced in length-wise halves.
The northbound ramps will be done in the second phase of the project and less detail is available for how they will be done.
When finished, the new northbound Providence Viaduct will be wider, broad enough to carry five lanes of traffic instead of the current four. The widening relates to the current traffic problem between Exits 22 and 23 caused by the “weave” of traffic where cars entering the highway from Route 6 and Memorial Boulevard meet cars trying to get off the highway at Route 146.
A permanent solution to this problem has been studied but involves a new ramp system for the Route 146 exit that would cost an additional $150 million the state doesn’t have, Pavia said.
If it starts on time next spring, the first phase of the Viaduct project is expected to last through 2016, with the full project completed in 2019.
Aside from the obvious traffic issues, construction of the northbound Viaduct (the east side of the highway) is not expected to infringe on any private property.
Improvements to the southbound span are expected to cross pieces of the Produce Warehouse property and the Foundry complex in the Promenade and, on the south side of Route 6, the C.J. Fox Building on Federal Hill.
Carpionato is actively marketing the former produce-market site, but Coates said the construction project should not be a problem, and he expects to announce a development project on the site within a year.
Based on the impact of traffic to customers, no property is likely to be as affected by the project as the Providence Place mall, the landmark usually cited by those explaining where the Viaduct is.
Calls to mall management about the project were not immediately returned. Neither did a spokesman for The Westin Providence return calls seeking comment.
On the other side of the highway on West Exchange Street, companies in the construction and technology sector said they were keeping an eye on the project, but were not overly concerned.
David Nunnally, director of operations for NanoSteel, which reformulates steel, said slower commutes for those coming to work from outside the immediate area would likely be the most significant problem during construction.
At Modern Design Construction (formerly Modern Industries), President Ned Capozzi Jr. welcomed the infrastructure investment and said making sure truck deliveries can get to the company’s West Exchange loading zone would be the biggest concern.
He added that the possibility of more cars crawling by on the nearby highway would provide extra incentive to get new signs up on the building with the company’s new name.
“I do think traffic will increase,” Capozzi said. •

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