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Under the plans announced Wednesday, the temporary bypass lanes will get a 50 percent boost in capacity in both directions.
âWe know that adding 50 percent capacity to what is there right now is going to save a considerable amount of time,â RIDOT Director Peter Alviti said at a State House news conference announcing the plan.
In originally announcing the closure, the state said it would take about three months to repair. That estimate went out the window weeks ago: After finding more problems in the bridge, the state now says it may have to replace the entire westbound span, and expects to get reports back on it by late February or early March. Meanwhile workers will now spend about the next eight weeks, depending on weather and other factors, reconfiguring the roadway in a way that would benefit commuters no matter what the ultimate outcome is on the westbound side.
Alviti on Wednesday declined to offer more specifics when pressed by reporters about when the state would know what would be required to get the westbound side back open again, or about the likelihood that itâll have to be rebuilt.
A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said putting the plan in place required studying feasibility, as well as getting federal approval, which is why itâs taken until now to do it.
The state is fitting the new lanes in by reducing their width by two feet, to 10 feet. Trucks will be restricted to the rightmost lane, which will be 11 feet wide. And the speed limit on the bypass lanes will be reduced to 40 miles per hour.
The DOT also said that because of the new eastbound configuration, traffic from South Water Street and India Street in Providence will need to yield when entering the highway, which could cause delays for drivers on the ramp to 195 east at rush hour.
Work will begin Monday with design and ordering materials, the state said. The construction will move the start of bypass lanes in East Providence about 3,000 feet west of where it is now.
State officials said the new traffic pattern should reduce travel times and ease spillover congestion on local streets, although exactly how much remains to be seen. Some people who are opting for different routes right now may go back on the bridge once the third lanes are open, which would increase traffic.
âIt certainly will improve travel time,â said Governor Dan McKee, who also remarked that wasnât going to talk about travel time as much as he had in the past, given the criticism of his previous statement that the closure was adding just 10 to 15 minutes to peopleâs commutes.
Brian Amaral can be reached at brian.amaral@globe.com. Follow him @bamaral44.
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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