PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Renovations to the Providence train station are almost complete and elected leaders gathered outside the station Friday morning to celebrate the work while highlighting plans for additional improvements.

"The improvements that are being made here to Providence Station make it a key hub not just for Providence but throughout southern New England," said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed at a news conference in the newly constructed plaza outside the station's southern entrance.

The work touted Friday included shoring up the roof of the parking garage, which was leaking water, and construction of a new entrance plaza with bus drop-off area, benches and walkways.

Reed said Amtrak, which owns the station itself, was "just about to go out to bid" for additional station work including repairs to the facade of the building.

Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti Jr. said the station work "marks another project that the [DOT] has completed ahead of schedule and under budget."

The renovations were estimated to cost $10 million, (The construction contract alone was $6.9 million) and DOT spokesman Charles St. Martin said they were now expected to be completed for $9.5 million. The contractor was J.H. Lynch & Sons.

Reed helped secure $5.2 million from the federal government for the project.

As for whether it was done ahead of schedule, a year ago the DOT announced that the project was expected to be finished by May.

St. Martin said a few remaining pieces of the project, including areas where marked off by orange pylons and temporary wooden structures, would be done by June, but the area had been opened "for beneficial use" in December, qualifying it as "ahead of schedule."

Joining Reed and Alviti at the morning event were Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza and Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, who is also chairman of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority Board.

Bringing more RIPTA buses to the train station was a goal of the current project and would go much further under plans to create a new bus hub at the station.

Last month the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation hired real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle to work with developers on a potential public-private partnership to create the new bus hub.

panderson@providencejournal.com / 277-7384

On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_