Would restore 55 acres for development, link neighborhoods at lower cost

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — City planners Monday unveiled a slimmed-down vision for Routes 6 and 10 designed to free up 55 acres of land for new development and reconnect isolated urban neighborhoods, potentially at a lower cost than the existing highway design.

The new plan for the deteriorating highway interchange would feature an elevated rotary at the end of Route 6 in Olneyville. The rotary, which the city calls a "halo" design, would replace the crumbling ramps that feed traffic between the two expressways and include the now-missing connection from Route 10 north to 6 West.

Through traffic on Route 10 would pass underneath the rotary without having to enter it.

The city has given the plan to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation as an alternative to rebuilding the 6-10 interchange on its existing footprint, at an estimated cost of $400 million.

"If we rethink this corridor, a lot of this land could be part of our neighborhoods," said Providence Planning Director Bonnie Nickerson after presenting it at a public forum. "You don't need to take up this much space for highway infrastructure."

Although the city is waiting for an estimate of the plan's cost, Nickerson told the crowd Monday she had a "hunch" that the combined construction and maintenance costs of the new design will be less than those of the current state plan.

The city's new design would create at least three new highway exits and one new highway entrance in an effort to unclog traffic that now plagues the connector by allowing it to flow more easily into city streets.

The potential development opportunities would be created by narrowing the highway right of way. Right now, portions of Routes 6 and 10 are between 370 and 600 feet wide. The city's "road diet" would slim that to a maximum of 240 feet.

Despite the narrowing, city officials told reporters at an afternoon briefing that the highways would retain at least two travel lanes in each direction and could have three lanes if necessary.

The city developed the new design working with consultants Utile Architecture and Planning and Nelson/Nygaard, who are now working on a cost estimate and traffic study expected by the end of the month.

Whether the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, which controls the highways, will listen to the new ideas is unclear.

City planners have been meeting with their state counterparts twice a week and discussed the 6-10 plan as recently as Thursday.

However, DOT spokeswoman Lizbeth Pettengill on Monday said because the agency had only received the formal plan earlier in the afternoon, it would not have any comment on it. She said no DOT officials were expected to attend the city's public forum.

After the state proposed a $595-million capped highway design in March, Governor Raimondo and DOT Director Peter Alviti Jr. announced last month that, due to safety concerns about the existing highway bridges, they were scrapping the cap plan and moving ahead with a cheaper and faster rebuild of the current design.

The new city design incorporates some elements — although far from all — of a plan advocated by two community groups to turn the expressway into a surface boulevard.

James Kennedy, of pro-boulevard group Move Together PVD, said after the meeting that the city plan, while not all he had hoped for, was positive, given the current circumstances, and significantly better than what the state is proposing.

Other facets of the new city alternative plan include:

• Replace the Dean Street on-ramp with direct connections to West Exchange and Cedar streets;

• Two new off-street bike paths, with a combined length of two miles;

• Rebuild Tobey Street across the highway;

• Reconnect Magnolia Street beneath Route 6;

• Build a pedestrian bridge over the highway at Oak Street; and

• Extend DePasquale Square "downhill" toward West Exchange

For more information visit:http://www.providenceri.com/planning/6-10-connector-project

— panderson@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7384

On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_