Question 3 would provide $66.52 million to improve bridges, roads and highways, buy new buses and build and repair transportation maintenance facilities.

09:17 AM EDT on Tuesday, October 19, 2004

BY BRUCE LANDIS
Journal Staff Writer

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third of 14 stories The Journal is publishing daily to explain each of the 14 questions that will appear on the ballot Nov. 2. The stories will appear in the order in which the questions are on the ballot.

The $66.52-million transportation bond -- Question 3 on the November ballot -- would pay for a variety of state transportation projects from bridges to buses.

Most of the money, $60 million, would be used to match federal highway funds or pay directly for improvements to bridges, roads and highways, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Another $5 million would be used to replace or repair existing transportation maintenance facilities.

The remaining $1.5 million would be used to buy about 26 buses for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority's fleet. The buses will have lower floors to make it easier for wheelchairs to board and eliminate failure-prone wheelchair lifts.

James Capaldi, the director of the DOT, said that if the bonds aren't approved, "No new road, bridge, bike path or enhancement could be done for the next two years."

Mark Therien, RIPTA's head of planning, said similarly that buying the buses is "critical" because the authority has too few to cover its routes and provide for spares.

Getting the additional buses, which should arrive in about two years, will also let RIPTA resume overhauling older buses to make them reliable for several years' more service, Therien said. He said the $1.5 million will, like much of the DOT's money, provide the state's 20 percent share of the buses' cost, with the majority paid by the Federal Transit Administration.

Non-passage of the bonds, Capaldi said, "would cripple the entire transportation system and have a devastating effect on the state."

Capaldi also said that if Rhode Island does not come up with the local match for the federal funds, "$378 million in matching federal funds pledged to the state DOT would simply be given to other states."

Bond issues appear on the ballot every two years. Rhode Island gets about $186 million in federal highway funds per year, the DOT said.

The state provides $30 million a year by selling bonds, along with about $13 million in gas tax revenue, to provide the state portion of federally financed projects and to pay for state-financed projects.

The DOT said these are "examples of projects that are needed and likely to be scheduled" from 2005 to 2008:

Median closures and interchange ramps for Routes 4 and 1 in North Kingstown from Shady Lea to the Route 138 interchange.

Route 5/Route 13 intersection in Warwick from Metro Center Boulevard to Route 113. The work includes highway reconstruction and a new intersection with Route 113.

Rehabilitation of the Royal Mills Bridge, in Warwick and West Warwick, which spans the Pawtuxet River.

Rehabilitation of the Cliff Walk, from Ruggles Avenue to Bailey's Beach in Newport.

Blackstone Bike Path Contract 7A, in Lincoln, North Smithfield and Woonsocket, from Manville Hill Road to Woonsocket Water Treatment Plant. Construction of a new portion of the bike path.

The DOT says it wants to consolidate existing maintenance facilities on Cherry Hill Road in Johnston and on Washington Highway (Route 116) in Lincoln.

The new 15,000-square-foot facility to replace them would be built in the Smithfield/Johnston/Lincoln/Route 295 area, the DOT said. It would include maintenance bays, fuel pumps, paint booths, storage and a salt storage structure.

The DOT would also replace the Portsmouth facility, which provides highway services for Route 24, East Main Road, West Main Road, the Mount Hope Bridge and highways in Tiverton, Little Compton, Warren, Bristol, Newport and Middletown.

The DOT said it would have to buy land for the new facility, because the existing one lacks space to store vehicles and equipment.