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Residents relieved for partial reopening of Reservoir Avenue Railroad Bridge


A sign for Reservoir Avenue Railroad Bridge construction. (WJAR){ }
A sign for Reservoir Avenue Railroad Bridge construction. (WJAR)
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The bridge that carries Reservoir Avenue over Amtrak near the Providence-Cranston line reopened Tuesday after two and a half years of construction.

The Rhode Island Department of Transportation thought the entire job would done by Christmas, but unexpected delays slowed things down.

RIDOT completed the first of two phases of rebuilding the Reservoir Avenue Railroad Bridge in Providence.

RIDOT Director Peter Alviti said it was closed because of its poor condition and safety hazards detected during an inspection.

"We've opened it to two-way traffic and we have a protected pedestrian walkway on one side," said Alviti. "We were able to get some cooperation from Amtrak to give us time to get on the bridge."

RIDOT closed the four-lane bridge, which sits over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, in 2021.

Officials planned to have it finished by now, but say the project experienced lengthy delays causing headaches for local residents.

"We use it a lot and then it just came down to just forgetting that we could even use it. Driving a lot, around a lot of other blocks and streets to get to the grocery store that kind of thing," said Lu Heintz.

RIDOT said this bridge plays a significant role in connecting Elmwood and Reservoir Avenue neighborhoods. One man told NBC 10 off camera this partial reopening is a relief as he’s seen Alvarez High School students using the tracks below to get to school.

Tuesday was Heintz's first time walking the pedestrian bridge since it closed. The mother learned about the opening through a neighbor. She has questions about the $13.8 million project.

"Yeah, like why did it take so long?" Heintz asked. "Communication was horrible too like we would sort of wonder and then they said they were going to make an announcement about when it was going to reopen and then they didn't make the announcement. So like I said, we sort of gave up on it ever reopening."

RIDOT said Amtrak is the reason for the delays.

"Generally we get between three, four hours per night for our contractors to go in and do the work over the Amtrak bridges. During the last year and a half or two years, we were able only to get at most two hours a night and even then, sparingly because Amtrak ran into some problems with having enough personnel to be able to devote to the projects," Alviti said.

The RIDOT website said the estimated amount of the project is $13.8 million, while a road sign near the bridge said $14.5 million.

Alviti said the contract for the bridge has provisions in it that will not allow the cost to increase exponentially because of delays. He said they have reached out to local, state and federal representatives to press Amtrak to provide more windows to do the work.

RIDOT said it hopes to have the entire project completed by spring 2024.

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