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Bridge repairs to begin in November
By Liz Boardman and Mark Schieldrop/Independent Staff Writers
The state Department of Transportation has awarded a bid for the reconstruction of Dillon’s Corner Bridge to John Rocchio Corp. of Greenville. Repairs will be made to the Peace Dale Stone Arch Bridge and the Point Judith Bridge as part of the project.
Both the north and southbound bridges of Dillon’s Corner Bridge, which carries Route 1 over Route 108, will be totally reconstructed with new piers, beam and decking. The work is scheduled to begin on Nov. 12. During the construction, two southbound lanes and one northbound lane of Route 1 will remain open. The northbound bridge will be reconstructed first and is anticipated to re-open fully by June 2010. The southbound portion will be fully reopened in November 2010.
The Point Judith Bridge, which carries traffic from the Point Judith Road intersection over Route 1, will close completely in November. The bridge deck, beam bearings and piers will be rehabilitated before the bridge reopens to traffic.
The Route 1 overpass at Dillon Rotary carries about 19,000 cars a day. The DOT gave the bridge a 64.8 out of 100 sufficiency rating during its last inspection. It rated the deck as “fair” and the superstructure and substructure as “poor.”
The complete repairs will include a totally new superstructure, which consists of the deck and beams, replacement of the north concrete pier columns and cap beam and concrete repairs to the south pier and both abutments.
The Route 1 north onramp from the rotary will be closed for the duration of the project.
The bridge was shored up with a temporary structure in 2007 and a second time in 2008 after DOT inspections showed significant deterioration of both the beams and the superstructure, including rebar that had begun showing through some of the concrete.
In preparation for the work, the town has installed wooden temporary tree protective fencing in the area of the rotary to let workers know that the trees should not be damaged or destroyed during construction, said Narragansett Assistant Town Engineer Diane Johnson. Work began Monday in the rotary area and will continue with lane re-striping in the next few weeks.
Also, the town convinced DOT to extend the sidewalk leading from the South Kingstown town line on Route 108 into Narragansett, under the overpass and through the rotary.
“That’s a major plus for the town,” Johnson said.
The contractor will not be using the rotary as a temporary storage area. Instead, the DOT’s salt storage area will be used for storage and temporary toilets.
Stone arch bridge
Work replacing the historic stonework on the stone arch bridge, which is located on Route 108 in Peace Dale, near Palisades Mill, will begin in June 2010. The bridge was closed for nine weeks in 2007, after inspectors found the parapet wall was separating from the bridge. A new concrete parapet wall was poured as part of the project, and the R.I. Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission asked the DOT to recover it with the same stone they removed – a project that meant cutting pieces to size. But that request was lost in the paperwork flow because it was an emergency repair, and the work was not done. As a result, the bridge has been without a stone facade since it reopened in November 2007, though town and DOT officials quickly agreed to roll the stonework project in with the Dillon’s Corner Bridge bid.
The Point Judith Bridge was originally slated for reconstruction in 2011, but pressure from Narragansett town officials in 2007 compelled DOT to move the timeline forward. At the time, Councilman Christopher Wilkens wrote several letters to state Sen. James C. Sheehan (D-Dist. 36), the DOT and the General Assembly with concerns about the condition of the bridge. Wilkens was concerned about jersey barriers in the shoulders of the road under the bridge forcing bicyclists and pedestrians into the travel lanes.
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