They tend not to take things sitting down in East Providence. It’s a working class community. People work hard. They support Little League baseball, CYO basketball, Pop Warner football and all of the high school’s extracurricular activities.
And like it is in so many of Rhode Island’s cities and towns, they frequent local businesses whenever possible.
And when it appears that those local businesses are getting the short end of the stick, they respond. So it should come as no surprise that when construction work on Route 195 started directing motorists away from East Providence, the state Department of Transportation offices heard a collective cry of foul.
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This is not the easiest of times to be running a business in the heart of East Providence.
The DOT’s repair of the Washington Bridge is re-routing motorists. It’s not the DOT’s fault, really. It is simply a price of progress. There’s not a whole lot they can do about it. The bridge needs to be fixed. The money is in the budget.
But it’s not too much to ask to see that every reasonable step possible is taken to ensure that city businesses are able to survive the ordeal.
Some motorists, it seems, are taking the Warren Avenue exit off 195 and finding their way to their intended destination. But too many others are passing right by. Maybe they’re landing in Seekonk or maybe they’re simply putting off an errand to another day – another place.
But if this is what it’s going to be like for the next year or so, business owners in East Providence have every reason to be upset.
No one likes to sit in stalled traffic. It is frustrating. It is inconvenient. But if you own a liquor store, an auto-body repair shop, an insurance company or a restaurant along Taunton Avenue, it is more than an inconvenience. It’s your very livelihood. And you deserve more from the state than the detour signs now in place along Route 195.
That’s what Rep. Raymond Coelho, an East Providence Democrat, was thinking when he fired off a letter last week to DOT Director William D. Ankner.
The legislator is demanding that the state DOT do a better job of coordinating traffic during the project and helping businesses affected by it.
In part, Coelho’s letter read: "Once again it seems, Taunton Avenue small businesses are being victimized by inadequate planning in the Washington Bridge reconstruction now under way in central East Providence… Although I realize the road and bridge construction is necessary and in the public interest, it must be accompanies by well-planned rerouting and the display of proper signage."
Coelho wrote the letter in direct response to a situation just a couple of weeks ago, when East Providence City Hall and the U.S. Post Office on Grove Avenue were made essentially inaccessible to cars by barriers installed because of the construction project. Coelho said that no signs were erected to warn motorists of the barriers.
"Businesses are losing business like crazy," Coelho said. "You can’t come up Taunton Avenue at all. There weren’t any proper detours telling people how to get around in the city."
Coelho said he is looking into whether business interruption insurance could be provided for small businesses in the area that have been affected by the project.
State officials have also heard from Rep. Brian Coogan, another East Providence Democrat who will be squaring off against Coelho in a Sept. 10 primary.
Coogan’s parents own and operate the popular Horton’s Seafood restaurant on Six Corners in East Providence. He and his wife run a small business of their own. He is well aware of what a year-long highway construction project could do to a small business.
"I’ve made calls to the state…and told them that a lot of those businesses have lost money," said Coogan.
Coogan has suggested to state officials that some additional signage be put in place.
"I would like to see that any business that is impacted, there be a sign with an arrow showing how to get to that business."
It’s not a bad idea. And I bet the folks in East Providence would be willing to help the state with any of the logistics. That’s the kind of people they are.
