Johnston and North Providence have their own bridge issues.
For four years, a small bridge connecting the two towns has been closed to vehicular traffic.
“I’m just coming here tonight to bring up the Greystone Bridge,” Chris Gosetti told Johnston Town Council on Aug. 13. “It’s not a dead issue.”
A spokesman for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), however, says a full Greystone Bridge replacement is unlikely “given the many bridges across the state carrying vastly higher volumes of traffic and commerce that are in need of repair or replacement.”
Johnston’s mayor calls RIDOT’s proposed pedestrian footbridge option (gated and capable of carrying emergency vehicles only) a “half-baked solution.”
Effort to Reconnect
Gosetti, President of the Greystone Social Club, appeared at August’s regular Town Council meeting in an effort to once again connect the Johnston and North Providence town governments on this unresolved issue.
He and business owners along the Route 44 and Route 104 corridors have advocated for reopening the now nearly 75-year-old Greystone Bridge, which has been closed since 2020.
With the bridge closed, congestion has been growing along both routes, and the neighborhoods linked by the bridge seem to be growing further apart.
“It’s something that’s important to both towns, both to businesses and residents … so hopefully this is an issue that we can resolve,” Gosetti said on Aug. 13. He urged Johnston Town Council to work with their counterparts in North Providence.
“I’ve done some research,” Gosetti told the council. He cited a bridge project undertaken by neighboring Smithfield, which cost that town around $1.7 million.
“Obviously I’ve lost my trust in the DOT … I don’t think [RIDOT Director Peter Alviti Jr.] has all the information,” Gosetti said.
“Did North Providence say specifically what they were going to do?” asked Town Council President Robert V. Russo.
“They’re looking at getting pricing on … hiring an engineer,” Gosetti answered. He told Johnston Town Council to watch out for a letter from North Providence Town Council seeking an engineer’s opinion on a bridge replacement capable of carrying vehicular traffic. State estimates have ranged from $2 million to more than $20 million for a full bridge replacement.
The Mayors
After initially pledging to rebuild the bridge, RIDOT later announced they were only willing to build a replacement Greystone Bridge capable of carrying pedestrian traffic and occasional trips by emergency apparatus (fire trucks mainly, in times of emergency).
Polisena said he had a meeting “regarding this bridge” with Alviti and North Providence Mayor Charles A. Lombardi early last year, shortly after he took office.
“At that meeting they informed me of the plan to rebuild it as a one lane pedestrian bridge with a gate that was to be used by emergency vehicles only,” Polisena recalled in late August. “I checked with our fire department and it responded so infrequently to North Providence, that it didn’t make sense.”
A pedestrian bridge closed to passenger vehicles might infuriate taxpayers, the mayor predicts (and Gosetti agrees).
“Imagine how upset taxpayers would be to see a bridge rebuilt, with the capacity to hold emergency vehicles like ladder trucks and fire engines, yet there’s a gate on it preventing public use,” Polisena said. “Bridges that connect roads should be for vehicles, not pedestrians.”
Polisena asked for data to back up the state’s latest rationale for a pedestrian bridge (rather than a bridge capable of carrying traffic).
“Director Alviti claims the bridge was not used frequently enough by vehicles to warrant a rebuild to its previous state,” Polisena said. “I have not seen any data to back that up.”
The Data
RIDOT spokesman Charles St. Martin III provided comment from Alviti following receipt of several questions from the Johnston SunRise regarding the Greystone Bridge’s current repair status. The department 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,” Alviti said, 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.”
The Politics
RIDOT confirmed meeting with both towns’ mayors last year.
“RIDOT met with officials from both towns years ago, both mayors and police and fire chiefs from both towns, and there was unanimous agreement to proceed with the pedestrian bridge concept to provide connectivity for pedestrians of both communities and to access the park,” RIDOT claims. “Nothing has changed from RIDOT’s perspective, with the exception that the communities no longer want the pedestrian bridge.”
Polisena pushed back against the data and Alviti’s assertions.
“Regarding RIDOT using their data points, I’m not an engineer, but opening a bridge that services 3,000 vehicles a day seems like a pretty good idea to alleviate traffic concerns, particularly in the Centerdale area off Rt. 44, where traffic is backed up from Johnston into North Providence,” Polisena said after reviewing RIDOT’S traffic chart.
The Backstory
A couple years ago, Polisena worked for Gov. Dan McKee, but eventually left the governor’s office and ran for mayor after his father, Joseph M. Polisena Sr., reached his term limit. At some point, the relationship between McKee and current Mayor Polisena dissolved.
Polisena has pushed back against McKee and state government over several issues — including the persistent flooding of state roads in town. He has been vocal a critic of McKee and a supporter of the governor’s prior 2022 Primary election opponent Helena Foulkes.
And since the Greystone Bridge closed, the state has been grappling with the closing (and eventual detour) of half the Washington Bridge in Providence, and the monumental failures associated with the impending demolition and replacement of that major Ocean State interchange.
“I can’t speak to whether or not it’s a grudge, but residents are smart and tend to put two and two together,” Polisena said of the state’s refusal to rebuild the bridge connecting Johnston and North Providence.
“I have not heard any new updates from the state,” Polisena said in late August. “They are still ignoring residents and Johnston/North Providence elected officials and stating the bridge must be destroyed if the communities do not favor a pedestrian bridge with gated emergency vehicle access. I think they’ll tell you they want to tear the bridge down as it’s a safety issue, which is most likely correct. The real problem lies in why they don’t want to rebuild it back to its existing configuration — not larger, not smaller.”
Johnston State Rep. Deborah A. Fellela (District 43) also supports the call for a full bridge replacement.
Fellela said a new Greystone Bridge was listed on former Gov. Gina Raimondo’s “10-year plan,” but abandoned once McKee took office (McKee was elevated to governor when Raimondo took a post in US President Joe Biden’s administration; McKee was later elected to a full term last year).
“Many business folks and residents see the need for this bridge,” Fellela said in August. “It will alleviate some of the traffic flow in the Centerdale section — also Route 44. Along the way a revision was made to make it a pedestrian bridge, which I feel is a waste of money.”
Fellela said she was helping to set up a meeting with McKee late last year, but “then the whole Washington Bridge debacle happened.”
In a radio interview at least a year ago, Polisena heard Alviti debate whether the state even owned the bridge. Since that broadcast, Polisena and Fellela have found documentation confirming the state does in fact own the Greystone Bridge. (Alviti, through St. Martin, did not dispute state ownership of the bridge following questions from the Johnston SunRise.)
“I'd be willing to speak to our federal delegation to see if they can assist in helping with funds,” Fellela said. “I do have a letter saying the state owns the bridge.”
Dollars & Sense
Since 2020, the road on either side of the Greystone Bridge has been blocked by orange barriers. Dog-walkers frequently cross. North Providence residents cross the bridge to patronize Cricket Field at 15 Riverside Ave. in Johnston. And Johnston residents have to go the long way around, to drive to the Greystone Social Club, on the North Providence side.
Historical signs in the park commemorate the Graniteville neighborhood’s long history, all the way back to Woonasquatucket River barrel racing.
“I’ve never heard of a pedestrian bridge built to connect roadways,” Polisena said. “Bridges connecting roads should be for vehicles, not pedestrians — that’s why it didn’t make much sense to me in the first place.”
Gosetti and other residents were baffled when the state proposed building a bridge that could support fire apparatus but not passenger cars.
“It doesn’t make any sense that it could hold the weight of a ladder truck or rescue but not cars,” Polisena said. “Why I am not agreeable to this solution is twofold. First, the fire chief told me the bridge was not frequented by the Johnston Fire Department for mutual aid to North Providence. Second, there’s nothing that would piss off residents more than seeing a brand new bridge build with taxpayer dollars that has a gate up preventing public vehicle access from crossing. This is why I told Director Alviti I am not agreeing to this half-baked solution.”
Polisena considered Gosetti’s proposal — the two towns splitting engineering fees to get their own second opinion on a full bridge replacement. Polisena said he has been in regular contact with the president of North Providence’s Town Council.
“I would be willing to spend a small sum on engineers to prove the state wrong, but as I expressed (on Aug. 13) I have serious reservations about the Town spending its own tax dollars to build the bridge,” Polisena said after the meeting. “That’s like saying that since the state has seemingly abandoned many state roads in Johnston, the town should take on the burden of fixing them itself. Absolutely not, the state needs to adhere to its responsibility and fix it itself.”
Polisena recommended voters carry their frustrations into the voting booth.
“As I’ve said before publicly, if the residents of the area keep getting spurned by state officials, they need to punish them at the ballot box,” Polisena said. “I don’t engage in political groupthink and think people need to vote the candidate not the party. If the candidate isn’t responding to you, vote against them the next chance you have. If enough people feel the same way, that candidate will find themselves out of a job soon enough.”
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