WPRO News
The Park Avenue bridge in Cranston is finally reopened to traffic, one month after its closure prompted a call for an investigation by the House Speaker.
The Rhode Island Department of Transportation says it reopened the Park Avenue Bridge Tuesday after closing the span June 23. An inspection revealed it to be a safety risk.
“It was done on an emergency basis,” said DOT Director Peter Alviti.
“We immediately brought a contractor on board to fix the bridge, replace the wooden deck and then repave the surface over it. It cost $410,000,” Alviti said.
Kenneth Elderkin, who works at a barber shop near the bridge says the reopening will be good for business.
“The big thing was the walk-ins; I had four walk-ins in the last month,” said Elderkin.
“It was just an inconvenience for a little while.”
The DOT says the fix is temporary and the bridge remains structurally deficient, a 16-ton weight limit posted before the closing remains in effect.
“A permanent solution will be a metal bridge with a concrete deck that we will be designing and then building in future years,” Alviti said.
Governor Gina Raimondo said she was pleased about the progress on the bridge but called for a plan to address concerns about the state’s crumbling infrastructure.
“We need a sustainable funding formula to rebuild our roads and bridges across Rhode Island,” said Raimondo.
The Cranston bridge runs over an Amtrak rail line, just a couple of hundred yards from the law office of the powerful House Speaker, Nicholas Mattiello (D-Cranston).
The closing sparked controversy after Mattiello questioned why the DOT had not fixed the bridge sooner, and why it was inspected in September and remained open. He asked for an investigation.
Raimondo did not order an investigation. She pointed out that the bridge has been structurally deficient and weight restricted for years.
Alviti said the DOT and its contractor are about halfway through inspecting a list of bridges that are believed to be deficient in some way. He added, that soon after he took office earlier this year, three bridges “blew out”, in ways similar to the Park Ave. bridge, but none of the others had to be closed during repairs.
