Gencarella & Bishop: Political Football v Public Safety

Gencarella & Bishop: Political Football v Public Safety

As Rhode Islanders, we are all too familiar with the politicizing of pretty much everything, but the 6/10 Connector is really ‘a bridge too far’.

Feds Say Not So FAST(Lane), Governor Says Hurry Up And Do It

A few weeks ago, after the federal government said that the proposed 6/10 ‘big dig’ isn’t what they had in mind for the FASTLANE (motor freight) grants and just after another public meeting about plans for the 6/10 Connector brought out hundreds seeking a more neighborhood-friendly and effective commuter solution, Governor Raimondo completely changed course. She unexpectedly issued an edict: No more discussion to determine the most efficient replacement for the 6/10 Connector. 

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According to WPRI,  Speaker Mattiello is backing her. He likely has four less supporters for that position after Tuesday, but the final verdict on the impact of tin-eared governance awaits November. 

So rather than listening to those impacted by this major state decision, rather than being open to a potentially better idea that’s a better fit for the taxpayers’ wallet, the Governor and Speaker favor a rebuild that is status quo bricks and mortar, starting now, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and years of construction delays.  And why you ask?  London Providence bridges falling down.

Raimondo’s version: “the situation is growing too dangerous to continue discussing alternatives”.  The Providence Preservation Society disagrees saying the decision is shortsighted and they are joined by the West Broadway Neighborhood Association.  James Kennedy, from Transport Providence  doesn’t mince words. He says the Governor is lying and has used fear about the safety of bridges throughout the entire process as a way of derailing discussion.  

In a move eerily similar to the abrupt closing of a bridge adjacent to the Speaker’s business office, the governor suggests public policy must turn on a dime because of ‘only recently discovered’ accelerated bridge deterioration.  No one disagrees that the bridges are in bad shape, but more frightening than the bridges, it is frighteningly suspicious that they suddenly became so degraded as to foreclose all other options precisely when the Governor and RIDOT started losing the public argument and their funding for Disneyland style plans.

We Can Still Be Safe And Have A Full Vetting

But let’s take the Governor at her word, solely for argument’s sake mind you. Let’s imagine for a moment that this is really a technical and traffic engineering challenge and has nothing to do with her administration having alienated the Federal Department of Transportation and suddenly seeing Uncle Sam’s spigot choked off nor with the dreamed of reward for the trades who backed her election drying up. Let’s pretend the problem exists in isolation and is solely the accelerated deterioration of the Huntington Avenue Bridge. Does this development really foreclose other options?

The recently formed coalition, Fix 6/10, must now focus on a much smaller question than an overall vision for Olneyville, Silver Lake, Arlington, Hartford and Thornton neighborhoods. Is there a better solution to the problem than fast tracking “in-kind” replacement of the Huntington Avenue span, one of seven bridges in the connector? This is an especially important consideration since the Governor’s approach would then lock us into rebuilding the other 6 bridges more or less “in-kind”, having spent $200 million on the first installment.

The RI Trucking Association has begun discussion of a different and more thoughtful way forward. If the safety of the Huntington Avenue Bridge is such an imminent concern, then the governor should restrict trucks on that bridge as RI Trucking CEO Chris Maxwell suggests, basically calling her bluff.

Let’s Start With A Cost Effective Temporary Solution That Works For All

In a well functioning administration, having received notice from the federal highway officials that the bridges could face weight restriction in the near future, the Governor wouldn’t wait for a press release from the truckers, but would have picked up the phone and called various trucking interests and city officials to discuss the difficulties that such restrictions might pose and how to solve them.

There are objections to seeing the truckers offer alone as a solution. Olneyville Square already sees truck traffic from the lack of the fabled northwest passage from Rte. 10 North to Rte. 6 West. It should not be the place that sustains all the truck traffic from both directions. Even though truck counts are low on this road (and that is part of the Trucking Association’s point), the square is a neighborhood center afterall, where people are meant to stop, not to use as a through road. A detour off the connector with no other provisions would be good neither for truck traffic, nor the small businesses, artists and entrepreneurs who occupy the square.

But there is a cost effective solution that has already been studied and planned, that could remove all the trucks from Olneyville Square while still allowing for the Huntington Avenue Bridge to be restricted. That is the Delaine Street improvements contemplated in the “Olneyville Circulator Study."

Aside from simple alterations of cornering, traffic signals and parking patterns, the important change is the extension of Delaine several hundred feet to Hartford Avenue.  This would simply and inexpensively provide the road around Olneyville Square connecting Routes 6 and 10.  The Huntington Avenue bridge lifespan could thus be easily and safely extended for commuters by restricting trucks without choking the square.  A very viable solution.

Webster - An Informed Decision - A Decision Based On Facts And Information.

This would allow the public discussion of the best style of replacement for the 6/10 Connector to continue without over investing in infrastructure that might end up being useless if one alternative were chosen over another. So this approach does not foreclose any outcome to the 6/10 discussion: In-kind replacement or Boulevard or Parkway or some hybrid.  And the Delaine improvements won’t got to waste when trucking restrictions end, but will provide needed relief for Olneyville Square regardless of the eventual trajectory of the 6/10 Connector debate.  Sounds like a win-win temporary solution that would allow a full vetting of the ultimate 6/10 Connector rebuild.

While many Rhode Islanders are reasonably skeptical of a boulevard to replace the 6/10 highway system, they have not had the chance to see a well thought out template of how the experiences in other communities with highway removal have been successful, both for neighborhoods and traffic. And there are a number of them.

Government Should Have The Capacity To Adapt, To Be Open To New Possibilities.

Without a full analysis of how one could most effectively apply this concept in Providence that contemplates not just Olneyville but connections to 95 North at the Mall, access improvements for Route 10 at the Niantic Industrial Park and adjacent commerce and industry to the west and improvements providing other surface routes into Downtown, and any associated pedestrian, bike, mass transit, neighborhood and economic improvements, no one can form a serious opinion about whether a boulevard is appropriate.

The Governor has been silent about the truckers inviting restriction. It is our hope to assemble a coalition to join us next week to publicly roll out a more wholistic and less tendencious alternative to fast tracking the Huntington Avenue Bridge. Will the Governor bother to respond? It depends upon who flocks to this banner. We can only contemplate who might join in. Maybe neighborhoods who are literally being kicked to the curb by the foreclosure of discussion, and commuters concerned about years of delay for a fast track rebuild, followed by years more due to trailing in-kind replacement of 6 other bridges, and truckers who are being asked to fund the repair of spans that they use relatively infrequently, as well as progressives who consider tolls on trucks to be a trickle up regressive tax on low and middle income consumers, and possibly conservatives who favor more economical and effective use of tax dollars, along with traffic and civil engineers who aren’t constrained by getting a paycheck signed by the Governor.

An Informed Decision Leads To Better Results.

All this coalition is asking for now is strategic, cost effective planning for the safety of commuters so that we can have the citizen input and dispassionate analysis promised repeatedly by the Governor and DOT Director Alviti. We think it inappropriate to ask citizens to choose without such an undertaking. Thus we don’t ask those interested to abandon skepticism of or cheerleading for a boulevard. Rather we ask them to join us in calling for the Governor to stop playing political football and adopt a plan that makes commuting safe but allows us to have this important discussion.