Stan Snycyk was fuming Friday. He had planned to walk the park-like setting at the end of his street, Strawberry Field Road west. However, when he reached the intersection of Palace Avenue, he was greeted by a no trespassing sign, orange plastic fencing and cement Jersey barriers placed so closely together that he couldn’t squeeze between them if he tried.

Strawberry Field Road is a city street as is Palace Avenue. Beyond the barriers, crews were cutting town trees, earth moving equipment was piling up loam and as Snycyk reports tearing up Field View Avenue, another city street.

How could the Rhode Island Corporation rip up city streets without them being abandoned, even though in recent months that’s been the plan? Furthermore, as reported in the Warwick Beacon last Thursday how could that happen when an abutting lot on Palace Avenue was mistakenly identified as RIAC land when it belongs to Curt Tietze? The discovery triggered the City Planning Board to postpone earlier this month the RIAC petition to abandon the streets until the survey is corrected.

Snycyk started making calls to City Hall, to Councilman Tim Howe, to neighbors. He said people were surprised and suggested he call RIAC. He got nowhere.

City Planner Tom Kravitz wasn’t surprised. The clearing including removal of Field View is all part of a $100 million project to build an air cargo facility for FedEx and UPS on the south side of the terminal abutting Strawberry Filed Road West.

“That’s where the wall is going to be relocated,” Kravitz said of visual and noise barrier west of Green Airport’s major north-south runway.

And what about jumping the gun and blocking city streets before they are abandoned by the City Council?

Kravitz talked of an understanding between the city administration that the streets would be abandoned and RIAC would address Mayor Frank Picozzi’s chief concern with the air cargo hub – that trailer trucks be routed to the Airport Connector so as to avoid heavy traffic on Main Avenue and Post Road that would impact residential areas and residential development within City Centre. RIAC is in the process of designing a rotary enabling the trucks and other traffic to access ramps to the connector without crossing in front of the terminal or using Post Road or Main Avenue.

“The abandonment it still going to go,” Kravitz said of the streets, explaining the work is progressing under a PAP or pre-approval petition. “We are trying to row in the same direction at this point.”

In addition to the rotary, Kravitz said the city is looking for RIAC to relocate a proposed maintenance salt shed from a site close to Post Road toward the air field and air cargo in what he said planners term an “urban use transect.” He explained that would provide transition between property uses and would be a better fit with residential development in City Centre.

The complete terms of an agreement are expected to be spelled out in a memorandum of agreement within the environmental assessment, EA, of the air cargo project prepared for RIAC. The city appealed to the Federal Aviation Administration for a review of the EA since it did not address Mayor Picozzi’s concerns over the impact on local traffic. A review hasn’t formally happened nor has an agreement signed. Yet work on the air cargo project is moving ahead.

In and email last week, John Goodman, RIAC Assistant Vice President, Media & Public  addressed the survey that mistakenly identified the Tietze parcel as RIAC property and the abandonment of streets.

“As noted in my previous email, there was an error in the survey submitted by the Project Surveyor that did not properly identify a parcel of property. Our Infrastructure Department has directed the consultant to correct this data so it can be sent back to Warwick. If street abandonments are fully obtained on the road abonnements on RIAC property, we will complete the whole wall. If abandonments are not obtained, the wall will be affected at three points. In case of the absence of street abandonments, we will still construct the wall but with three gaps at points where the road intersects the wall.”