As part of a major effort to improve Rhode Island Highway 37 between the cities of Cranston and Warwick, the state’s Department of Transportation (RIDOT) is steering two separate phases of work on the critical east-west freeway.
The overall project has been designed to rehabilitate or
replace 22 bridges and make safety and congestion improvements along the corridor.
The state did not have to look far to secure
The administration of Maine Gov. Janet Mills has two measures under way to help coastal communities in the state to rebuild and become more resilient after January’s devastating storms.
Her office is looking to expedite a $50 million proposal to assist towns in rebuilding infrastructure and enhance climate resiliency, Mainebiz reported Feb. 12.
In addition, her office recently announced the availability of $4.4 million in federal funds to help Maine’s electrical grid withstand the effects of extreme storms.
During her State of the State Address on Jan. 30, Mills proposed to invest $50 million in the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund to help the state’s coastal areas rebuild in the wake of the recent storms and ensure their infrastructure can withstand the impacts of extreme storms in the future.
The money would come from the state’s record-high Budget Stabilization Fund, known as the “Rainy Day Fund.” Mills said she would introduce the proposal in standalone
SENNEBOGEN, in kee philosophy to maxim created UPTIME Kits
n-house or on the everything you e, maintenance place. They were ime and money. of related service d nuts to O-Rings omes easy with a o order and stock
eping with their mize uptime, has Whether you are a service technician i road, these kits have need for every service and PM task in one p created to save you t Managing hundreds o parts, from belts and and special tools bec single part number to
They are:
• Easy to order and ea t d t
components and too
stock asy to s l
• Ideal for stocking se and trucks
Choose from the follo
• Central lubrication
• Preventive mainte
• O-Ring kits
:kits
• Hydraulic
service
• Electrical service k Hydraulic service k
shops ols ervice owing kits system kits nance service kits its kits
k
And the best thing is in stock and ready to built to match your m and series. Count on
s that these kits, go, are custommachine model
SENNEBOGEN
nformation on he QR code.
dow NO
come t a have They echnician machine,
If back. to front every
ontract Demolition C st in parts repair the have virtu and I machine another in
wntim warehouse. American ready-to-ship of inventories plete for uptime izes
they Since do no lose ally
over go to month a once through wntime… ock. get
quickly. back unit the g I k
, Bloomfield Hills, MI or
North our in parts com with customers maxim commitment h about more Read
rain e • T ervic ts • S Par
to
bring just [they] situation, a have I theSENNEBOGEN y-t t act OGEN f tor ained technicians tr ned tec cians
machine” the “beyond ng Cost Total lower and its of life the out
a more Learn 2-6351 ) 29 (800 ongmead ast L E oa er R 1 Shak 25 yle t.ww our to commitment our w bout (800 Berli 1980 28 A 010 , M ow d om omers requipment.c cust 52-4473 ) 3 0 7 in, CT 0603 urnpike 0 Berlin T sennebogeen-na.com/beyond-the--machine
In January, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) received $81 million in federal funding to establish a new freeway connection between Interstate 95 and Quonset Business Park, south of Providence, which will allow the agency to complete what it calls the “missing move” at the interchange of I-95 and Rhode Island Highway 4.
The construction of two new highway ramps, a new roundabout, and three missing ramps from local roads to R.I. 4 will allow direct travel from the two roadways in all directions.
According to the Quonset Development Corp. (QDC), the 3,200-acre business and industrial park is home to more than 200 companies and 13,000 jobs within the state. In addition, the complex employs “one of every six manufacturing jobs in Rhode Island,” according to the state’s Public Transportation Authority.
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Jack Reed characterized the construction as a “forward-looking investment in growing Rhode Island’s economy,” in an email to the Brown Daily Herald, published by journalism students at Providence’s Brown University.
Reed added that the “missing move will also improve traffic flow and help thousands of Rhode Islanders get to and from work quicker and more efficiently” as well as keep trucks off local roads in North Kingstown.
According to RIDOT, the new freeway connection will enable vehicles to drive faster than 50 mph by 2057 in places where, without the new road, traffic congestion would force them to travel at speeds of only 10-30 mph.
In prior years, state officials have worked to expand transportation options into the area. For instance, in 2019, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) launched a free pilot bus program from Providence’s Kennedy Plaza to Quonset Business Park.
At the same time, from 2019 until June 2022, the Quonset Express, better known as the Route Qx bus, ran free of charge for workers within the city was intended to be an accessible and affordable way of reaching Quonset Park, according to RIPTA.
Since then, however, RIPTA has identified the route as low performing and plans to eliminate the service. From September 2022 to August 2023, only about five passengers rode Route Qx per trip, wrote Cristy Raposo Perry, the transit agency’s director of communications and public outreach, in
an email to the Daily Herald.
She attributed the service cut to RIPTA’s driver shortages.
“Since transit plays such a vital role in the lives of individuals and communities throughout Rhode Island, RIPTA would much prefer to expand rather than diminish the service it provides,” Perry noted. “The labor shortage, which is affecting transit agencies nationwide, has a direct impact on the level of service that RIPTA can provide.”
The transit authority has conducted “extensive recruitment efforts,” she said, but drivers are retiring at a quicker
rate than RIPTA can replace them.
In general, using public transportation reduces greenhouse gas emissions, according to the state transportation department. Despite the elimination of the bus route, RIDOT estimates that its “missing move” project between I-95 and R.I. 4 will reduce approximately 500 metric tons of greenhouse gases per year, according to an agency press release.
In November, RIDOT published its Carbon Reduction Strategy, which made it eligible to receive over $35.7 million in federal funding to use on carbon-cutting projects in line with the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Carbon Reduction Program.
The proposed freeway connecting I95 and Quonset Business Park is one such project that RIDOT said will address “carbon emissions by means of congestion reduction.”
Such projects in the state include an “additional $6.3 million for upgrades to signals in ‘congested corridors’ and $4 million for a bridge overpass — out of $15.8 million total for congestion management,” the Daily Herald previously reported.
Emily Koo, a 2013 Brown University graduate and currently a senior policy advocate and Rhode Island program director at the Acadia Center, believes that increasing public transportation within the state is one solution to carbon emissions.
She expressed disappointment that Route Qx is going to be eliminated.
“Fully connecting the entire state to the employment center of the Quonset Business Park must be tackled not only through a more direct connection to I95, but also through frequent, reliable public transportation,” Koo explained. “Rhode Island’s transportation sector is not on track to meeting its proportionate Act on Climate mandates to reduce emissions 45 percent by 2030 and to reach net zero emissions by 2050.”
RIDOT has not yet disclosed when construction to build the freeway connection from I-95 to Quonset Business Park is scheduled to begin, but David Preston, a spokesperson for QDC, acknowledges that these types of projects take time to become successful.
“The bedrock of success [in Rhode Island] is the infrastructure,” he told the Daily Herald. “It’s not something that’s done in one shot. It’s a multi-year, step by step, thoughtful approach to building up your infrastructure. This is one more brick in that process.”
(Maps courtesy of RIDOT)
Pawtuxet River, part of RIDOT’s first phase of the work.
Since its formation in 1998, J.R. Vinagro has been known primarily as a demolition, recycling, asbestos abatement and site development services company.
But, in 2023, the transportation department contracted with JRV to first demolish, then replace the severely deficient highway structure carrying R.I. 37 Eastbound across the river using the Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) method.
The bridge’s replacement became the first such project ever performed by JRV and by all accounts, it was a rousing achievement for the company.
RIDOT had earlier deemed the Pawtuxet River bridge’s structural steel and concrete substructure to be in critical condition.
According to Trevin Alpaio, JRV’s project manager at the site, the company’s strategy in replacing the bridge only began after “months of planning, allocating resources like labor and equipment to every step of the project, and preparing an hour-by-hour schedule in order to accomplish our goal.”
“Once work commenced, it was important to track our productivity to maintain the schedule and to ensure the quality and accuracy of work,” he added. “Preparing resources in advance of each task was critical. We also made sure that each incoming labor shift overlapped with the last so that there was no lag in production or information turnover.”
The first stage of work was demolition of the R.I. 37 bridge’s concrete deck and barrier, structural steel beams and concrete abutments and pier over a single weekend.
Monroe Tractor has hired Susan Donis as parts manager of its South Windsor, Conn., location.
Donis brings several years of experience managing the parts department at a local manufacturing company, where she handled hundreds of dealers internationally, nationwide and directly to the consumer.
“I am a people pleaser ‘mother hen,’ if you will. My goal will always be to assist my service team and our customers as quickly and efficiently as pos-
sible. If I don’t know the answer, I will find it, or find someone that does,” said Donis.
“Susan comes to us with direct experience as a parts manager and possesses the skill to serve her well at Monroe Tractor. Susan is passionate about her department, extremely organized, and interested in doing things right for her customers and coworkers. She’s a bright beacon of light to head up our parts team,” said Rick Bisesto, branch manager.
REBUILD from page 1
legislation, rather than as part of her forthcoming supplemental budget, in order to advance the bill more quickly through the legislative process.
“Communities hard hit by the recent storms are in need of help, and we want to deliver that help as soon as possible,” she explained. “By considering this proposal apart from the supplemental budget, I hope we can more quickly move it through the Legislature and, ultimately, distribute these vital funds to Maine communities with urgent needs faster.”
“We know we can expect more severe storms in the future, which means that we need to take action now…”
The Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund, created in 2021, provides grants for significant infrastructure adaptation, repair, and improvements that support public safety, protection of essential community assets and long-term infrastructure resiliency.
Project types may include working waterfront infrastructure, culverts, storm water systems, water system upgrades and other interventions that support reducing or eliminating climate impacts, especially coastal and inland flooding.
The monies are intended for public projects with exemptions available for some types of private infrastructure upgrades with significant community benefits, such as waterfronts.
The legislation is expected to be introduced in the coming days, Mainebiz noted Feb. 12.
The $4.4 million in federal funds through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to increase the resilience of the electrical grid is due to be administered by the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) through the Maine Grid Resilience Program.
Specifically, that money will support projects such as weatherizing critical technology and equipment, moving electrical infrastructure underground, and improving vegetation and utility pole management, among others.
The funds come after a series of severe winter storms in December and January caused significant devastation to communities, several millions of dollars in infrastructure
VINAGRO from page 6
JRV brought 20 crew members and several pieces of equipment to the site, Alpaio noted, including six mid-size excavators — among them Cat 335s and John Deere 345s — to remove concrete from the bridge deck.
“We then moved to the steel beam removal with the help of two of our largest demolition machines, the Cat 374 and Cat 390 excavators, along with a big Komatsu 490 excavator and several mid-size machines,” he said. “This equipment saved us precious time by eliminating the need for crane setup and breakdown.”
In addition, Alpaio said the removal of concrete substructure was accomplished with four mid-size excavators, large front-end loaders, including a Cat 980 and a pair of Volvo articulating rear-end dump trucks.
The relatively small demolition team finished their work in only about 18 hours, he added, despite the “massive hurdle” of capturing debris before it fell into the river.
To complete the bridge replacement on an accelerated schedule, the new superstructure needed to be built adjacent to the existing span on temporary abutments. That install was set to take place over a period of 60 hours on one weekend in late October.
Janet Mills Maine Governordamage, and left hundreds of thousands of Mainers without power for days.
“We know we can expect more severe storms in the future, which means that we need to take action now to strengthen our electrical grid, and that’s exactly what the Grid Resilience Program will do,” said Mills.
The investments are expected to both improve the grid and reduce the frequency and duration of power outages.
“With the frequency and severity of storms expected to increase as a result of climate change, it’s imperative that we make smart investments in our electrical grid to mitigate and reduce future impacts,” noted GEO Director Dan Burgess. “Through this program, our goal is to empower Maine households, businesses, and communities to be resilient to future disruptive events.”
GEO was awarded the money from the U.S. Department of Energy and anticipates receiving another $6.6 million in future Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for more grid resilience projects in forthcoming years, Mainebiz learned. Maine entities eligible for the monies include electric utilities, electricity generators and storage operators.
In addition to supporting grid resilience, the program aims to support Maine’s climate and clean energy goals and further expand the state’s clean energy economy, which is the fastest growing in New England, the Mills administration noted in a news release.
Once demolition of the old abutments was completed, JRV’s crews could begin to backfill the new concrete abutments and slide the new bridge into place.
“The design incorporated precast concrete bridge elements, which were installed at the approaches of the new structure,” Alpaio said. “Final backfills of the roadway and wingwall slopes was followed by paving of the bridge deck and highway.”
With the temporary substructure complete, steel beam erection began in late August.
“The build back was accomplished with the help of 30-40 operators, laborers and carpenters as well as more excavators, loaders, bulldozers and dump trucks,” he said. “We were often running up to 10 machines at one time. We also utilized two 100-ton cranes in order to set precast concrete bridge elements on the prepared subgrade.”
The obvious schedule restrictions and sheer volume of material being handled also proved challenging for J.R. Vinagro at the R.I. 37 Eastbound bridge site, according to Alpaio, in addition to the discovery of PCBs within the old bridge barrier, which required the hazardous material to be separated from the rest of the concrete elements during demolition.
In the end, the construction firm considers its first bridge build to be a tremendous success, he said.
“This was one of the first bridge slides in the state of Rhode Island and I believe the largest to date,” Alpaio said. “JRV took on this challenge and was able to remove the deficient highway bridge and replace it with a new span with traffic back traveling over it safely within a tight timeframe.”
CEG
