The Rhode Island Department of Transportation, alongside Cranston and Warwick’s Department of Public Works, have major infrastructure plans for the upcoming year.

According to Tony Moretti, Cranston chief of staff , the administration has kept up to date with DOT projects within city limits, and is preparing for city projects  in the meantime.

Here’s a look at what RIDOT and the Cranston DPW has in store for 2024:

What’s happening to Route 37

One of the busiest highways in the state, Route 37 has seen a good degree of work done on it over the past few years, and it isn’t letting up in 2024.

According to RIDOT Chief Public Affairs Officer Charles St. Martin, the DOT’s work on Route 37 will continue with paving and bridge rehabilitation work throughout the year. The first stage of the project- focusing on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of six bridges between Post Road and Pontiac Avenue- is expected to be finished by this summer. Work on the second phase  - focusing on the western part of Route 37, as well as adding a third lane to Route 295 northbound up to the Route 6 exit in Johnston – started in 2022 and is expected to be finished by 2026.

As of writing, the third lane on Route 295 northbound has been created at the on-ramp from Route 37 westbound, and exists through the Cranston Canyon.

The Route 37 project is expected to be fully completed in three phases, with a third phase expected to right-size the highway and end it with an at-grade intersection with Post Road. That phase has yet to begin, though St. Martin said that RIDOT is looking to award a contract to a design-build contractor this summer. The projected cost of Route 37 work is $256.9 million.

“Once the contract is awarded, they’ll begin working [on the third phase],” St. Martin said.

According to the DOT’s website, more than half of the bridges along the route were considered in poor condition prior to the start of construction.

RIDOT will also be repaving the Washington Secondary Trail. The trail functions as a bike path from Cranston to Coventry, with a roughly two-thirds of its nineteen miles located in Cranston and Warwick.

Major arteries to be repaved

In Cranston, Moretti said that the city’s Department of Public Works would likely be paving parts of Park Ave. in the summer, though he said that would have to wait for Rhode Island Energy to finish work that they have planned there in the spring.

“They’ve been accelerating their work, so we don’t pave the road and then they dig it up again,” Moretti said. “So they’re completing their work in early spring of this year, and then there’s a waiting period of two or three months for that ground they dug up to settle, and then we’ll be paving.”

In addition, Moretti said that the Knightsville Phase Two Streetscape Project, which is aimed at landscaping, rebuilding sidewalks and beautification in the village, is planned to be completed this year.

Moretti noted that the city would  likely have more projects planned by April, when Mayor Kenneth Hopkins submits the city’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget.

Additionally, currently scheduled for repaving in 2024 are a good amount of Warwick’s most traveled roads, as well as the repaving of two bridges on East Avenue.

State repaving projects consist of Post Road from Main Ave. to Coronado Road, Bald Hill Road from East Ave. to Route 295, the entire length of Main Ave. and East Ave. to Bald Hill Road and West Shore Road from Long Street to Oakland Beach Ave, according to the DOT’s website. St. Martin said that the DOT will also be paving a small chunk of West Shore Road from Hoxsie Four Corners to Delwood Road and Centreville Road from the I-95 South onramp to Quaker Lane on the Warwick/West Warwick line.

The repaving projects in Warwick, according to the DOT’s website, will cost $102 million, and are built to last at least 30 years.

St. Martin believes that the DOT’s first focus this year in regards to these projects will be repaving Route 117. While parts of the area between Long Street and Oakland Beach Ave. have already been paved due to Rhode Island Energy work in the area, St. Martin said that their paving work did not cover the entirety of the area, and the DOT will get the areas that they missed.

“Between their work and our work, that will fill in any gaps between Long Street and Oakland Beach Avenue,” St. Martin said.

Other traffic changes in the city will be a second left turn lane on East Ave. heading into CCRI’s entrance and the replacement of a traffic light at the intersection of Bald Hill Road and East Ave.

Finishing up old projects

RIDOT’s Airport Connector Beautification Project is nearly completed, though behind schedule. According to St. Martin, the holdup there is due to a slower-than-expected delivery time for materials for the airport signage.

The repaving of Post Road from Elmwood Ave. to Coronado Road is considered part of the project as well, according to St. Martin, and will hold up the project’s official completion to the summer.

“We’ll be working on sidewalks, wheelchair ramps, making [the area] ADA-accessible, and then paving,” St. Martin said.

Referencing other pavement work to be done along Post Road this year as well as other paving completed in 2023, St. Martin said that there will be new pavement “from Apponaug to Warwick Ave.”

Meanwhile, the DOT’s study on whether to expand the T.F. Green Airport train station to accommodate an Amtrak platform has been completed, according to St. Martin. The reason it isn’t publicly available, he said, is because it needs to be reviewed by a couple of bodies first.

“That is done and is currently being reviewed by Amtrak for their approval,” St. Martin said. “The next step after that is that it will be reviewed by the Federal Railroad Administration. They may make some changes.”