The blocked-off Greystone Bridge had no problem holding the weight of nearly 100 neighbors, local business owners, elected officials and a sizeable Greystone Social Club contingent last Wednesday.
Will the bridge come down? And if it does, what will the state build in its place?
The state’s Department of Transportation says they’re open to a meeting, but bridge demolition plans remain underway.
Chris Gosetti, a vocal advocate for re-opening and re-building the bridge for vehicular traffic, spoke first last Wednesday at a press conference called by local legislators and the neighboring social club.
“Under the (Gov.) Gina Raimondo administration, the bridge was on a list of bridges to be rebuilt across Rhode Island,” Gosetti told the crowd. He described the previously scheduled bridge work.
“Major rehabilitation work, superstructure, and/or total bridge replacement quoted at a total cost of $2 million,” Gosetti told the crowd. “And if the DOT director needs help finding this information on the DOT website, please don’t hesitate to call me.”
Gosetti heard the bridge was scheduled to be demolished; but it wasn’t, for some reason. He asked a series of questions probing the state’s transparency on the bridge rebuild.
“What’s changed now?” Gosetti asked. “Why weren’t the residents and business owners notified about the decision? And why was it done quietly by the DOT Director and the Governor?”
Earlier this week, Charles St. Martin, Chief of Public Affairs for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), confirmed the demolition option was still on the table.
“The contractor has submitted demolition plans and RIDOT is reviewing them,” St. Martin wrote on Tuesday, Oct. 22. “We have not set a timeline for completion.”
Bridge History
The bridge has been blocked now for more than four years.
In 2020, the state determined the Greystone Sluiceway Bridge, on the border of Johnston and North Providence, was structurally deficient. After Raimondo left office for a job with the Biden administration in Washington D.C., and Gov. Dan McKee took office, the projected cost of the bridge has ballooned dramatically, to as much as $20 million.
“The new governor took over, and that’s when the delays started,” Gosetti told the crowd last week. “The project got pushed out again, and again, and again. And sometime after that, the rug got pulled out from under us, and we found out the bridge was not going to be built after all.”
Following the press conference, RIDOT responded to a list of questions with a brief statement.
“As you know, RIDOT previously met with officials from both communities years ago and came to a consensus for building a pedestrian bridge to provide connectivity for pedestrians of both communities and to access a an adjacent park,” St. Martin wrote on Monday, Oct. 21.
The bridge is next to Cricket Field, at 15 Riverside Ave. in Johnston, where signs provide glimpses into the past of the Graniteville neighborhood that once thrived along the Woonasquatucket River. Now, it’s quiet and open only to dog walkers, reachable from just one direction through daunting Route 44 traffic.
“Parties were in agreement with that strategy at that time,” St. Martin wrote. “As a result of the communities’ change in their consensus, the Director is willing to meet with the mayors again and to discuss other options for a path forward.”
Johnston state Rep. Deborah A. Fellela (District 43) attended the press conference on the bridge last week. After, she said she “got a call from the director’s office,” and she’s currently “waiting for them to set a date.”
Key Points
“The key point there is to meet with the mayors,” Gosetti said Wednesday morning.
Gosetti heads the Greystone Social Club, but says he mainly speaks as a concerned resident and business owner.
“It irks me, every time the DOT director says, ‘I met with people,’” Gosetti said. “Well you didn’t meet with the right people.”
When the state decided to build a pedestrian bridge accessible by emergency vehicles only, they did so without seeking public feedback, according to Gosetti.
“He never met with residents, business owners, town councils, the people who live here,” Gosetti said. “It should have been an open forum. DOT can’t just meet with two mayors. DOT needs to meet with town councils. Everybody knows that this bridge is needed.”
Several months ago, RIDOT provided a chart showing hourly vehicle counts at the bridge prior to closure (in 2019) — estimating around 3,000 vehicles crossed the bridge each day.
“The bridge has been closed since July 2020, and in the four years since it was closed RIDOT has not observed traffic congestion along the detour route that takes approximately four minutes to travel,” Peter Alviti Jr. said in a statement, via St. Martin. “The cost of building the bridge for full use by cars and trucks is much more than that of a single-lane pedestrian bridge capable of handling rescue vehicles. The cost to do this is not consistent with the traffic using the bridge, the short detour and no congestion observed in the four years it has carried zero numbers of cars and trucks. These facts do not justify the investment for its replacement given the many bridges across the state carrying vastly higher volumes of traffic and commerce that are in need of repair or replacement.”
Gosetti had a simple response to the director’s assertions: “They’re not the one sitting in traffic on a Friday afternoon. That’s the big picture in a nutshell.”
Alviti “sounds like a broken record,” Gosetti said. “He’s talking about things from years and years ago, but it doesn’t apply any more. Traffic is much heavier now. And this affects everyone.”
GO BACK THE WAY YOU CAME: Orange barricades, erected by RI DOT in 2020, block both sides of the Greystone Sluiceway Bridge on the border of Johnston and North Providence. Last Wednesday, supporters of reopening and rebuilding the bridge to vehicle traffic met for a rally/press conference. (Beacon Media photos by Rory Schuler)
CALLING IT OUT: Chris Gosetti, President of the Greystone Social Club, has helped bring attention to the sleepy Graniteville neighborhood, where a closed bridge threatens a community coma. The state is considering demolishing the bridge soon, but the structure’s future replacement is unclear. (Beacon Media photos by Rory Schuler)
ONE MAYOR SHOWED: Johnston Mayor Joseph M. Polisena was one of several local elected officials who took turns at the center of the crowd on Wednesday, Oct. 16. (Beacon Media photos by Rory Schuler)
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