Smithfield Ave may be two-way by summer’s end

The last minute discovery that Smithfield Avenue is not entirely controlled by the state will probably not block plans to return this intersection to two-way traffic before Labor Day thanks to anticipated federal stimulus funding for city construction projects, according to Councilman Kevin Jackson of Ward 3.

Officials ask DOT to make Smithfield intersection two-way

At the initiative of City Councilman Kevin Jackson the Providence City Council has approved a resolution that the intersection at Smithfield Ave. and North Main Street be made into a two-way connection. State Representative Gordon Fox has formally requested that the RI Dept. of Transportation, which controls both streets, begin work leading to the change.

Survey says: Fix Smithfield Ave.

Most folks think the Smithfield Avenue intersection on North Main can’t get much worse than it is, while a gloomy few think it could if made two-way.

Summit Neighborhood Assocation’s unscientific survey of readers via newsletter, email and this web site on whether to make the one-way intersection into a conventional two-way connection drew 35 online respondents and five mailed responses. Only five said “no,” while 30 said “yes.” Five people hit the “don’t know” button.

Third Street catch basins cleaned

Here’s an update on the flooding issue received from Francisco Lovera at DOT. Project members raised this issue with Francisco at our meeting on Sept. 9. 

On Sep 15, 2008, at 12:07 PM, Lovera, Francisco wrote:

Hi Jon,
Following up to our previous email, we want to let you know that our Maintenance personnel cleaned out the catch basin on North Main Street at Third Street. Also, our Drainage Engineer visited the site and observed that the reveal in the curbing could be raised a little bit; we will try to make this change through our Maintenance Section.
In other hand, we received conceptual plans for a drainage project in the area from the Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC). The project includes some drainage modification at the North Main Street/Third Street intersection. We cannot provide you with more details about this project; however, we encourage you to get in touch with NBC to obtain more details on this project.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Francisco Lovera
Traffic Engineering

Rhode Island Department of Transportation

Should the Smithfield Ave. intersection be two-way?

 

Why is this intersection one-way?

On Tuesday, the Project steering group, joined by Rep. Gordon Fox and Councilman Kevin Jackson, talked about the possibility of making the Smithfield Ave connector between North Main and Nashua Streets two-way with DOT’s Francisco Lovera. We agreed to get more input from the community before making such a request, but here is the current status and future process as decribed by Francisco on Sept. 10:

Hi Jon,
 
Thank you for the invitation to the neighborhood meeting last night.  The Department of Transportation is always open to receive feed back from citizens.  We appreciate and encourage these exchanges because they help us keep our infrastructure up and running with the end user in mind.
 
In regard to the signal at the North Main Street/Smithfield Avenue intersection, we found out that the requested change to Smithfield Avenue was outside of the scope of work at the time the North Main Street Project was on design.  As I mentioned yesterday, a change like this has to be approved by the State Traffic Commission (STC) at the requested of either the City of Providence or a State Representative or Senator.  

DOT will check NMS storm drains

On Sep 10, 2008 In response to discussion on Sept. 9, Francicso Lovera of the Department of Transportation wrote:

As a follow up to yesterday’s meeting, we contacted our Maintenance Division and asked to check that the drainage structures in North Main and Third Street are not clogged. We also asked our Drainage Engineer to take a look at the structures. As soon as we hear back from them we can contact you.

Francisco Lovera