The Rhode Island Department of Transportation is being entrusted with hundreds of millions of dollars to repair the state’s failing bridges. But some residents in Smithfield give the D.O.T. a failing grade when it comes to taking care of the smaller stuff: After insisting on installing its own mailboxes as part of a repaving project five years ago, the D.O.T. has largely abandoned numerous people whose boxes have been damaged or knocked off by snow plows. Jim Hummel takes their complaints to the department, which now acknowledges it needs to fix the problem – and pledges to do so soon.
