Fight for TIGER grants on

ROAD WORK: The $10 million TIGER grant, if successful, would go toward expanding phase two of a project to include a new two-lane highway ramp running parallel to I-95 North. / COURTESY R.I. DOT
ROAD WORK: The $10 million TIGER grant, if successful, would go toward expanding phase two of a project to include a new two-lane highway ramp running parallel to I-95 North. / COURTESY R.I. DOT

For the second consecutive year, Rhode Island and Providence will throw competing highway and mass-transit expansion plans into the race for federal transportation funding.
After winning $10 million last year to help rebuild the roads around Apponaug Village in Warwick, the R.I. Department of Transportation this year is applying for its second $10 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant for the Providence Viaduct replacement project on Interstate 95.
To win a grant for the Viaduct, the Rhode Island DOT will have to beat out requests from across the country in the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (or TIGER) program, including Providence’s application for help building a city streetcar network.
After losing out on a grant for the streetcar last year, Providence is trying again in 2014 with another application for $39 million toward the $114.4 million estimated price tag of the system’s initial build-out.
Adding another layer into the mix, the state DOT is also applying for a TIGER planning grant to study the design of a new intermodal transit hub at the Providence train station, which may or may not include a streetcar stop.
The planning grant, at an estimated $1 million to $2 million, would come from a different pot of TIGER money than either the streetcar or Viaduct construction grants and not compete with those applications, according to state officials.
Last year the debate over transportation priorities was contentious, with Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee arguing the streetcar was not “shovel ready” and streetcar supporters calling the Apponaug project ill-planned and sprawl inducing.
Coming against the backdrop of rancorous disagreement about state tolling and bridge-maintenance financing, this year’s TIGER grant contest appears more collegial.
“The streetcar is a good project,” said Phillip Kydd, deputy director of the R.I. Department of Transportation. “And we also believe it is going to be complimentary for the Providence station transit hub.” In addition to the first Viaduct grant and the Apponaug grant, Rhode Island has secured four TIGER grants since the Obama administration launched the program in 2009. (One was $10.5 million for mobile harbor cranes in Providence and the other $22.3 million for port infrastructure at the Port of Davisville.)
Connecticut and Massachusetts have both won five.
The state has never won more than one in a single funding year and the number of total requests nationally each year makes it daunting.
Whether it is in direct competition with the streetcar or not, or whether they agree with the streetcar plan, the Viaduct expansion is the kind of project mass-transit advocates often fight against.
The Viaduct itself is a deteriorating, 1,290-foot bridge carrying I-95 across the Woonasquatucket River, Northeast Corridor rail lines and routes 6 and 10, while linking to a lattice of on-and-off ramps in downtown Providence.
The state last summer began construction on the $66.8 million first phase of a Viaduct replacement project with plans to start an $80 million second phase in late 2016 for completion by the end of 2018.
The $10 million TIGER grant, if successful, would go toward expanding phase two of the project to include a new two-lane highway ramp running parallel to I-95 North, along the route of what is now Park Street, from Exit 22 to Charles Street. The ramp would eliminate one lane of Park Street.
This new ramp system would alleviate the current traffic-causing conflict between cars getting on the highway northbound at Memorial Boulevard and those exiting to Route 146 or Orms Street.
The expansion is expected to cost $46 million, bumping the total cost of the Viaduct project up to an estimated $190 million and adding about 18 months of additional construction time.
When the Viaduct is repaired, the state faces an estimated $500 million in repairs to the crumbling 6-10 interchange that feeds into the Viaduct from the city’s Olneyville section. The state estimates that providing separate travel lanes from Exit 22 to I-95 North will save motorists $5 million annually in fuel and accident repair costs, said spokeswoman Rose Amoros.
In addition to potentially taking funding away from the streetcar, transit advocates argue expanding highway capacity encourages more people to drive, increasing volume and eventually traffic.
Scott Wolf, executive director of GrowSmart Rhode Island, which advocates for urban-centered transportation policy, said his organization supports the expanded Viaduct project despite some reservations.
“On the surface it does go against the grain of smart-growth principles, but [state DOT Director Michael Lewis] was very persuasive in pointing out that this was going to relieve a major bottleneck in the middle of city,” Wolf said. “We thought to avoid the eight-mile backups at peak commuting times it was a reasonable proposal.”
Another wrinkle in the race for TIGER grant funding is the state’s interest in linking the streetcar to the Providence station transit hub.
Right now the streetcar route goes through Kennedy Plaza on its way between College Hill and Upper South Providence, but Kydd at the state DOT said he would like to see it make a loop up to the future train-station transit hub, then Providence Place mall and the R.I. Convention Center before turning south.
Providence planners have been exploring running a streetcar shuttle from Kennedy Plaza to the train station, but a permanent loop there would violate the “straighter is better” principle of transit route design and make travel times on the route longer.
The purpose of the TIGER planning grant is to study the scope and best design of a bus terminal at the train station that could also include mixed-use development at the neighboring parcel owned by Capital Properties. •

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