Click here for the new Anchor Rising & Ocean State Current page
November 8, 2007
Open Thread: The I-Way & Rhode Island Traffic
Can you name the highway project that fits this description…
It would provide urgently needed relief for I-95 and I-195 within the core of this urban area. It also will permit long-distance travelers between New York and Connecticut, and the Fall River-New Bedford metropolitan area and Cape Cod, to bypass this congested urban core.If you guessed the I-way, you'd be wrong!
The description comes from a 1960s-era proposal for an interstate 895, which along with 295 would have made a complete interstate loop around Providence. 895 would have started at the 95/295 interchange in Attleboro (the reason why the ramps between 295 and 95 seem so overbuilt is that they were constructed with 895 in mind), headed southeast through Massachusetts, crossed 195 near the East Providence/Seekonk line, approximately followed the unnumbered connector between 195 and 114 in East Providence and then 114 itself, turned west through Barrington, crossed an Upper Narragansett Bay Bridge that was never built, plowed through several Warwick neighborhoods, hooked up with route 37 in Warwick, and rejoined 295 in Cranston.
The details of this plan, and of many other Eastern New England roads, built and unbuilt, can be found on Steve Anderson's comprehensive Boston Roads website.
895, of course, was never built. And as is typical of government, even though they knew early on they had a problem, it took them thirty years to come up with an alternate solution.
The state department of transportation is saying that the congestion problems created by the new traffic patterns associated with the I-way will be relieved when the project is complete and all of the new routes are open. Do you buy that answer? Either way, consider this an open thread on the continuing traffic situation either being remedied or exacerbated by the new construction.
About Community Crier
About Engaged Citizen
Administrator
Red light camera revenue generators.
Scarce parking that is expensive when you find it.
8% meals tax.
And now this - yet another reason to avoid going to Providence unless absolutely necessary.
Posted by: Ragin' Rhode Islander at November 8, 2007 10:23 AMI am so glad I commute SOUTH of the city. The worst part is that the DOT wrongly thinks that things are getting better because the commute is getting slightly faster each day.
It's getting faster because more people are leaving work earlier or later and/or taking fuel-intensive alternate routes to avoid the DOT's screw-up.
I hope a whole handful of overpaid eggheads over at the DOT lose their gig over their inability to properly gauge what Rhode Island drivers were going to do here.
Posted by: Greg at November 8, 2007 10:51 AM>>I hope a whole handful of overpaid eggheads over at the DOT lose their gig over their inability to properly gauge what Rhode Island drivers were going to do here.
Silly boy Greg. Did you really expect competence from RI state government?
In this state employment isn't by competence but by who one knows / is related to.
As a result of this Democrat inbreeding we get a state workforce that could have served as extras in the movie Deliverance.
Posted by: Ragin' Rhode Islander at November 8, 2007 12:25 PM"It's getting faster because more people are leaving work earlier or later and/or taking fuel-intensive alternate routes to avoid the DOT's screw-up."
Add to that people who are just staying away - postponing errands or shopping elsewhere.
I'm trying to understand why this move was necessary. Even if the problems iron out with the "fuel intensive alternate routes", by deleting a lane from the 95S to 195E route, haven't we just shifted rather than eliminated the traffic burden (while adding to air pollution)?
Posted by: Monique at November 8, 2007 3:41 PM--I'm trying to understand why this move was necessary.
To have another project to feed the construction unions; dole out contracts to favored contractors and collect campaign donations.
Posted by: Ragin' Rhode Islander at November 8, 2007 11:13 PMWrong on all counts, Ragin. This whole project was done to create new real estate on the waterfront in Providence. Follow the money and you won't really be surprised at who stands to get even richer off our $610 million investment.
Posted by: Greg at November 9, 2007 8:28 AM