RE-SET IN STONE
Stone Arch Bridge project proceeds in No. Smithfield
NORTH SMITHFIELD – Traffic was crossing the historic Slatersville Stone Arch Bridge on Route 5 and the Branch River this week but that doesn’t mean the work is done at the site by any means.
You could say the big hurdle, a potentially year-long closure of the busy Main Street and Providence Pike access route, will be the real challenge for local residents when the next phase of the structure’s reconstruction begins later this year.
The contractor on the $13.5 million reconstruction project, MTG Group of Acton, Mass., had workers guiding traffic over the stone-built structure nextdoor to the Residences at the Slatersville Mill housing development as other crews continued work on upgrading a stone retaining wall supporting Railroad Street as it descends from the Main Street and Green Street intersection.
The project will also include shoring work in the area of the bridge abutments on the Main Street side of the Branch River that will set the stage for the next phase, the reconstruction of the sides of the 160-year-old bridge and the widening of its road bed and sidewalk deck.
Lisbeth Pettengill, director of communications for the R.I. Department of Transportation, said the scope of the project work includes “upgrades to portions of Main Street and Route 5 (Railroad Street/Providence Pike), such as resurfacing, bringing all existing curbing, sidewalks and walkways into
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance,” and adding new signing and road striping along with minor drainage and intersection improvements.
“There is a parapet wall that we will replace with a railing for additional safety. We will also add one lane each way and sidewalks,” she said. The road lane improvements should add approximately 20 feet of width to the travel lanes on the structure.
The project, which has already seen the central archway strengthened during a full shutdown of the bridge from March until June, will also redo the stonework on both outside facings of the structure, according to the DOT.
“The stonework will be replaced intact and in compliance with historic preservation efforts and we are taking additional steps to meet environmental restrictions,” Pettengill said.
As of this week, Pettengill said the bridge project is “on time and on budget.”
Although its repair raised local concerns over the impact of the bridge work on North Smithfield businesses on either side of the Branch River, the aging structure had been listed on DOT project goals for many years.
The design for the reconstruction included specific attention to historic preservation of the bridge and its surrounding features in the Slatersville Mill Village, the first example of a combination of work and community in the nation. The design will also add Americans with Disability Access features to the Ernest F. Woodworth walking path coming down to the bridge from Carroll Park and the town’s Memorial Garden.
“It is a complicated project but it is a beautiful, beautiful bridge and we are excited to be working on it,” Pettengill said.
The work is expected to continue through September of 2019 and will require the expected shutdown to traffic during that time.
Town Administrator Gary S. Ezovski said on Thursday that the town is already anticipating more inconvenience and potential business impacts from the work and will be seeking to mitigate them as much as possible.
“It is a huge project and we are certainly happy to see it being done because of the condition of the bridge,” Ezovski said. A motorist going over the bridge before the project began would have noticed the deterioration of the structure’s narrow road bed as they did, according to Ezovski.
The scope of the planned work took into account preservation of the historic aspects of the bridge and its nearby features and that likely added to the time involved and cost of the project, he noted.
There are also the impacts on businesses on Main Street with customers on the other side of bridge to weigh and also the access impacts to the Slatersville Industrial Park area on the Providence Pike side, he said.
“The folks I have talked to are really concerned about access and the shutdown,” he said. As a result, Ezovski said he plans to talk with members of the business community about the next shutdown and what that will cause as further travel inconvenience and customer impacts.
“We will be talking to folks and trying to flesh out ideas on how to make it easier for everyone,” he said.
In the long term, the ongoing work will stabilize and preserve a feature of the Slatersville Historic District that the town’s residents have used for more than a century, according to Ezovski.
“Hopefully it will last as long and it will have a wider roadbed, so we will all be happy when it is done,” he said.