Construction is underway in Washington County, as neighborhood zoning is looking to redesign in South Kingstown and the Tower Hill Road bridge welcomes the installation of a new traffic pattern in North Kingstown.
A series of interactive public meetings known as “charrettes” will occur from March 21 to 28 as a part of the Old Tower Hill Road Neighborhood Project. These meetings will help create a vision for the future of Old Tower Hill Road and the surrounding area through their structure which utilizes collaboration, speed, intensity and creativity to come to a consensus, according to the Project website.
The meetings will welcome anyone from the South Kingstown community to a week-long open design studio, extending to locals, such as University of Rhode Island students and faculty, senior planner, Brian Wagner said.
“We believe, and our consultants at Dover Kohl & Partners believe, that a public charrette is one valuable tool to generate public input into the project to allow the Town and its consultants to interact with the community and see where its interests lie,” Wagner said.
The neighborhood plan project lead is URI alum, Jason King of Dover Kohl & Partners. Since 2005 King has served as a project director for Dover Kohl & Partners in over 200 plans.
The South Kingstown neighborhood has received investment from the state in the form of new streets and bike facilities, however no alternative investment outside of public market assets has followed. This conflict helped spark the project, King said.
“Private investment generally follows public investment, however, this corridor is stuck in place due to outdated zoning and land development regulations, ‘the code,’” King said.
The neighborhood plan occurring within Washington County is one of the largest zoning redesign efforts in South Kingstown in decades, Wagner said, which is why planners like King hold strong incentives to create something impactful for the community.
“We have a duty as urban planners to talk to all affected persons and consider their ideas, but more than that, if we are able to draft a consensus vision that everyone can endorse there is a much better chance of implementation,” King said.
King’s job along with other planners is to work with the public to update these zoning and land development regulations so more potential for development can be created. Whilst doing so, these planners aim to take environmental outcomes into account to contribute positively to South Kingstown as a whole.
“We use charrettes because we believe the more hands-on the plan, the better,” King said. “Our goal with the charrette is to substantively involve people in the planning process through an engaging and often fascinating process.”
On Monday, the team will present at the Town Council meeting held at 7 p.m. on 180 High Street, Wakefield . The final review presentation will take place on March 28.
In addition to the Old Tower Hill Road Neighborhood Project, transportation changes are taking place at the Tower Hill Road bridge that passes over Route 138. After this process is completed, an extended weekend operation will be done in the fall to demolish the old bridge and put the new bridge into place. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation has installed a traffic pattern that launches the start of the $38.5 million project on the bridge, which is set to continue until early 2026.
Bridge construction began on March 1, where travel lanes were shifted underneath the bridge to the right. These lanes were shifted away from the middle to allow RIDOT to work on the foundation of the bridge in the center area underneath the bridge.
Lane shifts will occur over the next several weeks, however all lanes and ramps will still remain open during this period of construction, Charles St. Martin III, the Department of Transportation’s chief of public affairs said.
The current eight-week period will only complete a section of the foundation of the Tower Hill Road bridge. Another set of similar phases will similarly shift traffic again either to the left or right so other parts of the bridge can be worked on.
Project workers are utilizing the accelerated bridge construction method, which, through the use of multi-wheeled technology called self-propelled modular transporters, can build an entirely new bridge much faster.
“We use these transporters that are multi-wheeled vehicles that can go underneath the bridge, basically building a whole new bridge deck next to the bridge on supports,” St. Martin III said. “You drag the transporters underneath it, pick it up and drive it into its new location and lower it down.”
The final bridge is expected to be slightly shorter, following a structure similar to its current state with the same number of lanes.
Along with the bridge installation, the project will pave 6.5 miles on Route 1. Paving will be done at night from the Route 1/Route 4 split in North Kingstown to the Oliver Stedman Government Center in South Kingstown. There may be some lane closures during the evening but not when traffic volumes are high, St. Martin III said.
“The paving will be done at night so there could be some lane closures during the evening, but that’s when traffic volumes tend to be down,” St. Martin III said. “We’ll work on paving the southern section first, starting at Sherman Town Road in North Kingstown heading south.”
Additional work will be done surrounding the bridge to replace wheelchair ramps at the Bridgetown Road and Moorefield Road intersection and make stormwater treatment improvements around the area.
Frequent project updates on the Tower Hill Road bridge construction are being released under the featured projects section on the RIDOT website, dot.ri.gov. Current traffic patterns can be viewed under the Travel Advisories section of the website where weekly updates are being released.
Local users of the area, as well as URI students and faculty, are encouraged and welcomed to attend and participate in these interactive meetings held at Wakefield Elementary School. The first meeting, a Public Kick off & Hands-On Design Session will be held Monday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Additional information about the project and meetings can be found at oldtowerhillroadneighborhoodplan.com