PROVIDENCE – A municipal grant program in Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s proposed fiscal 2024 budget will make $20 million available for road, bridge and sidewalk improvements across the state.
The proposed R.I. Ready Municipal Road Fund Program would use federal American Rescue Plan ACT funds to leverage municipal investments to get more road paving projects done across the state. McKee on Tuesday said the program is designed to help local communities, who often struggle to set aside enough capital improvement funds in their budgets to properly maintain their transportation infrastructure.
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Rhode Island’s roads annually rank among the worst in the nation. Last month, for the fourth consecutive year the state’s roads were identified as the worst in the nation by QuoteWIzard.
“As the state works to repair roads and bridges to improve Rhode Island’s national infrastructure rankings, we want to provide support to our municipalities to do the same,” McKee said. This must be a team effort if we want to get results – the R.I. Ready Municipal Road Fund Program can help us get it done.”
Each city and town would provide 67% of the project costs with the state matching the remaining 33%, according to the release. Of the $20 million available, $15 million will be divided equally among each city and town, about $384,615 each. The remaining $5 million will be distributed proportionally to municipalities based on the miles of roads in each community.
Cities and towns with more roads will be able to seek more funding.
“By combining local capital improvement dollars, we can take each city or town’s investment of two-thirds of the project cost and match the one-third to help make a project they couldn’t quite afford possible, or to accelerate it so their much-needed local road repair projects can happen sooner,” said R.I. Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti Jr.
About 80% of the roads in Rhode Island – about 5,000 miles – are maintained by cities and towns. RIDOT has approximately 1,100 miles of state roads under its jurisdiction. According to the most recent annual pavement data submitted to the Federal Highway Administration, nearly half of all municipal roads are in poor condition.
The grant program will contain accountability measures, including quarterly reporting. Municipalities using the grant funds will report on each project’s progress, contract award dates, contract values and anticipated completion dates. All projects must be completed by the end of 2026.
Great news! About time someone does something to fix our roads, bridges and sidewalks. Now all McKee has to do is get rid of Alviti.