Reconsider Freeway Along with Port

Proposal and Savings
Cancel plans to build a new freeway between Route 4 and the Quonset-Davisville Industrial Park. The estimated project cost is $123 million — 80 percent federally funded.

Background
Rhode Island has long sought to redevelop the Quonset region, formerly a naval base. The Economic Development Corporation (EDC) believes industrial reuse of the base can be better marketed if a four-mile freeway connecting the Route 4 expressway to Quonset is constructed. The existing two-lane, 2.4-mile connection, Route 403, has good shoulders and no stop signs or traffic signals. A slightly longer connection using Routes 402 and U.S. 1 is four lanes, but needs intersection improvements. Despite gaining approval for the project, the state has delayed construction of the Quonset Access Freeway due to cost.

Status
With more federal funding available under the new federal transportation law (TEA-21), the state’s next three-year transportation plan allocates $50 million to build the first phase of the highway.

Problems with the project

Taxpayer Concerns
Since the 1995 Final Environmental Impact Statement, the project’s cost has risen from $71 million to $123 million. Also, voters already approved in 1996 a huge, $124 million public investment in improving freight rail service to Quonset.

Local Community Concerns
The EDC also plans a massive new port at Quonset involving filling hundreds of acres of Narragansett Bay. This development would subject Rhode Island to increased truck traffic, and would worsen the already poor air quality. With weak existing land use controls, the project would promote sprawl throughout the remaining semi-rural areas of southern Rhode Island. Responding to widespread opposition to the port, the Governor convened a stakeholder’s process to study the issue. Activists advocate including the entire Quonset project in the study and making no decision about the highway until this process concludes.

Environmental Concerns
The project would destroy about 33 acres of forest, 13 acres of farm/succession habitat, and fill 2.42 acres of wetlands. There is concern that the project is to be built over the Hunt-Annaquatucket-Pettaquamscutt Aquifer that provides water for East Greenwich’s municipal needs. For these reasons, the state’s Environment Council (a coalition of environmental organizations) unanimously passed a resolution opposing freeway construction.The EDC plans 57 acres of free parking in the industrial complex while merely promising a future study of transit services. The related port project has many serious environmental problems such as fishery impacts, dredge materials, and import of exotic species.

Contacts
Barry Schiller, RI Sierra Club, (401) 521-4734; Karina Lutz, RISierra Club, (401) 521-4734, karina.lutz@sierraclub.org.