PROVIDENCE – Next week, the R.I. Department of Transportation will close the temporary Gano Street exit ramp on the Interstate 195 East Iway project and reopen Exit 2 to India Street, DOT engineers told about 20 business leaders at a work session this morning in Providence.
The session – at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce’s Exchange Terrace office – detailed the major changes planned for 2008.
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The first four changes, including the opening of the India Street off-ramp, will be made this spring, said Kazem Farhoumand, DOT acting chief engineer.
Later this spring, the Friendship Street on ramp to I-195 East will close and Pine Street will be closed.
Then, during the summer, Exit 20 – from I-95 North to the old section of I-195 East – will be closed.
The prospective closure of Exit 20 raised concerns about traffic headed into the Jewelry and Courthouse districts. The DOT suggests those drivers use I-95 North’s Thurbers Avenue exit – Exit 18 – and drive north on Allens Avenue to Eddy Street. The intersection of Eddy and Point streets will be paved and the lights will be reworked to accommodate the traffic, said Farhoumand.
“I’m curious how you think you can put more traffic on Allens Avenue northbound,” said Richard Jaffe, of the Jewelry District Association. “It doesn’t work now. How are you going to put more traffic on it and make it work? Paving it is not going to help.”
Farhoumand said there are efforts underway to increase carpooling and use of R.I. Public Transit Authority buses. Also, some businesses might want to stagger their employees’ start and end times to reduce traffic, he suggested.
But, Farhoumand said, “If everybody keeps doing what they’re doing, we are going to have some problems.”
Additional information on the R.I. Department of Transportation’s IWay project is available at www.dot.ri.gov/projects/construction and at www.pineapplestudios.com/IWAYSite .
