Getting around R.I.’s bridges takes planning

KEEP ON TRUCKING: Trucks traveling north on The Pawtucket River Bridge are told to take a detour that runs parallel with the highway. The photo below shows corrosion on the bridge. /
KEEP ON TRUCKING: Trucks traveling north on The Pawtucket River Bridge are told to take a detour that runs parallel with the highway. The photo below shows corrosion on the bridge. /

Steve Harrall’s Rhody Transportation & Warehousing sends 10 to 12 18-wheelers full of freight on the road each day, but before they leave the North Kingstown warehouse, the drivers have to plan ahead.
If, for instance, they’re headed into Massachusetts, the trucks must avoid the Interstate 95 bridge over the Pawtucket River. The maximum weight allowed over the deteriorating span: 18 tons and no more than two axles. Harrall, the owner of the transportation company, said some of his drivers have had to start their shifts a half-hour earlier since the restrictions were posted nearly two years ago.
That’s so they have extra time to take Interstate 295 around the bridge, or Route 146 through northern Rhode Island and still get to their destination on schedule.
Harrall shrugs off the extra costs it has added to making deliveries. He has never even looked in-depth at the situation. “Who knows what that adds to the cost of labor and fuel?” he said. “It’s one of those things that you grin and bare it. We really have no option.”
Even though the R.I. Department of Transportation list of bridges in the Ocean State with weight restrictions is growing – five spans were assigned weight limits last month alone – many businesses that rely on the roads to make a profit appear to be rolling with the postings even though it may be costing time, labor and fuel.
Rhode Island Trucking Association (RITA) has heard few complaints from its members, made up of a mix of delivery companies, movers, landscapers and builders. Most of the 82 weight-restricted or closed bridges are on secondary roads that can be easily bypassed.
And even potentially the biggest trouble spots – such as the Pawtucket River Bridge, which carries between 160,000 and 180,000 vehicles a day – have drawn few laments from the trucking industry in Rhode Island, according to John L. Atwood, RITA president.
Going north, the detour around the Interstate 95 bridge is “quick off, quick on,” as truckers are told to use the historic Division Street Bridge, which runs parallel with the interstate, Atwood said. Southbound, the detour runs through downtown Pawtucket and takes somewhat longer, but most truckers plan ahead and avoid the area altogether, taking Interstate 295 instead, according to Atwood.
Those truckers who are caught crossing the bridge in violation of the weight restrictions are issued fines of up to $3,000, Atwood said. More than 5,600 tickets reportedly have been issued by the state police. Atwood figured virtually all of those caught are out-of-state drivers.
The 18-ton limit placed on the Sakonnet River Bridge, which carries 38,000 to 40,000 cars a day between Tiverton and Portsmouth, has the potential to cause the most headaches.
Transportation officials say, for instance, that a delivery truck starting in Tiverton would have to drive at least 30 miles out of the way to get onto Aquidneck Island over the Mount Hope or Pell bridges.
In most cases, however, advance planning can save time. If, for example, a motor coach tour bus is inbound from Boston, the driver can take Interstate 95 (after avoiding the Pawtucket River Bridge, of course) to southern Rhode Island, and then take the Pell Bridge into Newport.
But it’s the experience with that type of circuitous route that has the majority of the business community favoring toll increases on the Pell Bridge rather than face the prospect of weight restrictions on other spans.
Kazem Farhoumand, R.I. Department of Transportation’s chief engineer, acknowledged that the state likely has a higher rate of bridges with posted restrictions than other states, but he said the reason is two-fold:
Rhode Island’s state and local bridges are at a disadvantage versus those in other states because of the freeze-thaw cycles that bridges endure during the winter months along the coast. “That does a lot of damage,” Farhoumand said.
Add to that, Rhode Island’s fiscal woes. “We simply don’t have the resources to take care of what we own,” he said recently. “Everything is stacked against us.”
Farhoumand noted that 396 of the state’s 767 bridges that are at least 20 feet long have been deemed either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The libertarian group Reason Foundation said in a study a year ago that Rhode Island had the highest rate of deficient or obsolete spans in the country. At the same time, Farhoumand said, state transportation officials estimate they’d need double the DOT’s approximately $300 million annual budget to adequately care for the roads. Farhoumand placed the amount of the one-time federal stimulus funding for state transportation at $137 million.
“You do the math,” he added.
“Structurally deficient” doesn’t necessarily mean a bridge will be posted with a weight restriction or will be closed, Farhoumand said. But 82 state and local bridges have been either closed or limited to traffic after inspections that are conducted every two years have shown a high rate of deterioration.
The most recent additions to the list include bridges in Bristol, Narragansett, Richmond and two in East Providence.
“We try to be conservative” in setting the weight restrictions somewhat above what is necessary and erring on the side of caution, Farhoumand said. “But we’re not too conservative. We don’t want to inconvenience anybody more than we have to.”
Right now, the weight restriction causing one of the biggest inconveniences is the Goat Island Causeway Bridge in Newport, which is posted at 10, 12 and 19 tons respectively for two-, three- and five-axle vehicles.
Because of the restrictions, motor coach tour buses can’t pick up guests at the Hyatt Regency Newport, which is located on Goat Island, which is frustrating tour operators like Karen Oakley, vice president of Viking Tours of Newport.
Oakley said the smaller shuttle buses have been pressed into duty to get people into the main tourist areas.
Farhoumand said it’s also made it impossible to transport large boats by road to and from the marina on Goat Island in Newport Harbor.
But he added that the Goat Island Causeway is a unique situation in terms of weight-restricted bridges. “There’s no way to avoid it,” Farhoumand said. “That’s the only way on and off the island.” &#8226

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