Governor pitches roads plan
Raimondo visits Hamlet Avenue bridge project to discuss her Rhode Works plan to rehabiliate Rhode Island’s infrastructure
WOONSOCKET – There are hundreds of other bridges around the state that are in just as bad shape as the Hamlet Avenue Bridge – if not worse – but on Friday the 300-foot span had the dubious honor of serving as Exhibit A in Gov. Gina Raimondo’s case for Rhode Works.
Yeah, it looks like a bridge, but for the last 20 years it’s actually been a black hole into which hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars have regularly vanished in the form of short-term repairs – $130,000 in 2013 alone, according to state transportation officials.
Rhode Works is designed to seal up the money pit once and for all, according to Raimondo. The program envisions spending $4.7 billion over 10 years to repair some 250 structurally deficient bridges, prevent 400 more from lapsing into deficiency and to keep all of them in sound condition for the foreseeable future.
“No more Band-Aids,” Raimondo proclaimed upon the deck of the Hamlet Avenue Bridge. “This bridge has been held up with braces and Band-Aids for far too long. It’s a waste of money.”
The governor joined state Transportation Director Peter Alviti and other officials from the state Department of Transportation to check in on the progress of $3.2 million project to repair Hamlet Avenue Bridge as part of the Rhode Works blitz. Launched in January, the project is on budget and due to be substantially complete by next summer – as planned.
Bridges are deemed structurally deficient for myriad reasons – in the Hamlet Avenue Bridge’s case, because the concrete that supports the deck at the footings, located on either side of the span, is basically turning to dust. Normally, heavy duty steel braces positioned at either end of the bridge are supposed to simultaneously support the steel girders that hold up
the deck of the bridge and latch into the concrete footings.
Raimondo seemed aghast when Alviti showed her photographs of the condition of the concrete.
“That’s what we’re standing on?” the governor said.
This spring, when Rhode Works was passed by the General Assembly, it seemed like the label was synonymous with a controversial proposal to begin collecting tolls from trucks that pass over state highways about two years from now. But transportation officials said Rhode Works was always the banner for a comprehensive plan that includes not just raising revenue to repair roads, but the reinvention of DOT and the way it manages transportation projects.
Just 10 percent of the $4.7 billion that Rhode Works envisions investing in road reconstruction, drainage and safety improvements would be generated by tolls, according to Alviti.
“People think Rhode Works is tolls,” he said. “What Rhode Works really is is a $4.7 billion rehabilitation program for road transit, drainage and bridges. Bridges and tolls seemed to suck up all the oxygen during the formation of Rhode Works itself.”
The condition of the Ocean State’s roads and bridges is consistently ranked among the worst in the nation among var- ious rating entities – a situation Raimondo says is a killer for the economy. One reason Massachusetts weathered the Great Recession comparatively well is that it had invested generously in roads and other infrastructure ahead of the downturn.
When she took office last year, Raimondo said she realized that something had to be done. Like the bloated and unsustainable pension system that was undermining the state’s fiscal stability, the governor said she viewed the need for addressing the state’s withering infrastructure as one of the big issues that needed a comprehensive fix – not a piecemeal approach.
So she asked Alviti for develop a plan that would address three major components – revenue, public accountability and efficiency. The governor said she wanted Alviti to figure out how to raise enough money to fix the problem, spend it wisely and do so in a manner that would be easy for the general public to monitor.
A key part of Alviti’s response to the governor challenge was an overhaul of its construction management practices. Alviti said DOT was entrenched in a system where project engineers managed contracts at arm’s length, with little responsibility for success or failure of specific projects they were supposedly supervising. Construction managers monitored contracts, but they couldn’t answer such seemingly basic questions as whether a project was on schedule or over budget.
“We were sending ships out without captains,” observed Peter Garino, deputy director and chief operating officer for DOT.
Under Rhode Works, “we’ve completely blown up the management structure and reformed it,” said Alviti.
DOT has switched to a new control system in which project managers have direct supervisory control of construction details. From “concept to the last bolt,” responsibility for the success of each project now falls on one individual – the project manager.
“I think we’re changing the culture at DOT,” said the director. “I think the new culture will be there long after we are gone.”