Apponaug Circulator: We’re starting to see where we’ll be going this fall

By John Howell
Posted 4/28/16

It doesn’t take much imagination to see where Apponaug traffic will go, and by late summer or early fall a two-way extended Veterans Memorial Drive will be operational, according to Charles St. …

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Apponaug Circulator: We’re starting to see where we’ll be going this fall

Posted

It doesn’t take much imagination to see where Apponaug traffic will go, and by late summer or early fall a two-way extended Veterans Memorial Drive will be operational, according to Charles St. Martin, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

But in some respects that seems a long way off. Once a four-lane road, the Veterans Memorial Drive of today is two lanes. The rest of the pavement has been stripped away, leaving a sandy pathway at least a foot below the travel lanes. There are strategic points where motorists can access businesses and police headquarters, assuming earth-moving equipment is not in the way.

“They’re setting the [road] base and will be repaving,” St. Martin said. “Then they are going to flip to the other side.”

When completed, not only will Veterans Drive have two-way traffic, but the lanes of travel will be divided by a raised curb. There will be a break at the fire station for emergency vehicle use, but those on the road seeking to get to a location on their left will need to travel to the nearest roundabout and reverse their direction of travel. For example, a driver coming from Toll Gate Road and planning to pick up coffee at Honey Dew would need to drive to the roundabout at the intersection of Post Road and the Post Road Extension and loop back for their cup of joe.

That may seem out of the way but is likely to be less wear and tear than driving in and out of what’s there now.

“Fortunately, we’ve had the kind of winter that has allowed us to keep going and going,” Alfred Nazareth, supervisor on the circulator project for Cardi Construction, said in a recent on-site interview. Nazareth said the company is about a year ahead of schedule in replacing Kent County Water Authority lines in the village. Relocation of other utilities, including gas, electric, phone and cable, has been a major portion of the work along Veterans Memorial Drive. At this point, Nazareth estimated 75 percent of the circulator project completed.

St. Martin put the overall project about a month ahead of schedule and on budget. The construction contract for the job is $29 million.

With completion of the Veterans Memorial Drive extension on the site of the former Apponaug Mill and roundabouts at Toll Gate and Centerville Roads to the west and Post Road to the east, crews will turn their attention to another roundabout at the existing Apponaug Four Corners. This project and that stretch of Post Road in front of City Hall is the final phase of work projected for completion in the fall of 2017.

St. Martin was not aware of any traffic counts since the start of the circulator project. Traffic has been slow during rush hours but generally there is flow.

Comments

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  • Thecaptain

    Massive code violations noted and ignored by DOT although Alviti recognized the violations and promised on TV to fix them. Violations continue to include substandard fill, lack of proper compaction, zero sweeping, no dust mitigation. The list goes on and on, but that's Cardi's MO. By the way, there are no qualified QC representatives from DOT and the independent testing lab (Thielsch) is hired and paid for by Cardi. There will be road and sidewalk repairs within a year of completion.

    Friday, April 29, 2016 Report this

  • bendover

    No surprise there, Mr. Captain. How many federal dollars are involved here if any, and where is the IG for Federal Highway and Transportation? As far as "seeing where we are going" congratulations, you have very skillfully recreated that cutting edge traffic technology called the Bourne and Sagamore rotaries and brought it to Warwick in 2015-2017...What's next, pyramids for affordable housing?

    Friday, April 29, 2016 Report this

  • WarwickWatch

    Hope they plan on widening the lanes? People are petrified or don't know how to merge into two lane traffic. The round about at the split just after City Hall is very tight. Large trucks take up to lanes to make the split turn.

    Saturday, April 30, 2016 Report this