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INNEEDOFSUPPORT
John R. Hess & Co., a chemi-
cal supply company, stopped
running its trucks over the Park
Avenue Bridge two years ago, in
part because the right turn from
Wellington Avenue was difficult to
navigate, but also because opera-
tions manager Roger Blanchette
didn’t like what he saw beneath
the bridge.
He could see the deterioration.
“Why ask for a problem?” he said.
What the local business own-
ers learned recently, and were
surprised to hear, is the $400,000
repair to the bridge is a temporary
fix.
“This is the classic example of a
‘worst-first’ approach,” Alviti said.
“Meaning, you wait until some-
thing becomes completely defi-
cient. You wait for them to come to
the front of the ‘worst’ and then we
do just the worst ones.”
HOW BAD IS BAD?
That bridge is among the 244
that Rhode Island deems “structur-
ally deficient.” This is a term that
means, by FHA definition, that
they are restricted to light vehi-
cles, or require rehabilitation and
close monitoring.
Another class of bridges is “functionally obso-
lete.” These are bridges that are not built to current
standards, which may have narrow passages or
lanes, or other design flaws. Rhode Island has 255
bridges that fall into that category, according to the
Federal Highway Administration list.
In the Providence metropolitan area, the national
transportation research nonprofit TRIP reported that
33 percent of the roads in urban areas had “poor”
pavement conditions, and another 47 percent had
“mediocre” driving conditions. The average driver
pays $516 annually in vehicle costs for driving over
roads in need of repair, the organization found.
The ranking has less to do with climate, and more
to do with the age of a transportation system and
how frequently it is used. While the organization
did not analyze how states finance
improvements, maintenance of
resources is critical, said Rocky
Moretti, the organization’s direc-
tor of policy and research. “Typi-
cally, what we see in these cases,
is the most critical factor is having
the resources in place to make the
improvements that are needed,”
he said. “Clearly, Florida is doing
something right.”
The lack of a good, quality
transportation system is an added
business expense. Driving over
bumpy, poor roads leads to higher
vehicle maintenance costs. Com-
panies take that into consideration
when considering where to locate.
In proposing the tolls, which
would provide RIDOT with a sus-
tainable, use-based fee, Raimondo
said the Ocean State would be in
line with surrounding states, in-
cluding all but Connecticut in the
Northeast. All have tolls on trucks,
and Connecticut is seeking them.
“We shouldn’t have to wait until
a bridge collapses before we take
action,” she said. “I’m more than
a little concerned about that. We
have the worst bridges in America.
Right now, one in four bridges in
Rhode Island is structurally defi-
cient, and if we stay on our current path, half of our
bridges will be deficient in the next 10 years.
“We’re using our money right now to put Band-
Aids on these bridges, patching them up because
that’s all we have the money to do, is patch them up.
We should be rebuilding them,” Raimondo said. n