When it comes to repaving city streets, Eric Earls doesn’t make promises.

The Warwick Director of Public Works has learned there are too many variables from the funding, what utilities may have planned for the road (you don’t want the road being dug up the following year for gas lines, water or sewers), the availability of contractors and to the least predictable: the weather.

This year is starting off to be different than others in respect that the money is there – approximately $4 million in a combination of state and city funds  – and the city is prepared to tackle the biggest project on its list. For years, going back to Earls’ predecessor David Picozzi, Jefferson Boulevard has needed repaving although it’s not pocked with potholes and smooth compared to Kilvert Street that branches off of it. It’s time for some preventative maintenance.

Jefferson Boulevard is the repaving leviathan of city streets. It’s the width of Post Road and Warwick Avenue, both of which are state roads and close to their length stretching from Main Avenue in the southern side of the city to its intersection with Route 95 close to the Cranston line.

Frank Picozzi said he imagined it was a state road until he was elected mayor and learned the city would be responsible for repaving it.

The road has four travel lanes, plus breakdown lanes. It’s going to take a lot of asphalt to resurface not to mention work to reseat drains leaving exposed edges causing unsuspecting jolts to motorists.

Vinagro awarded job

Earls has given JR Vinagro Corporation, one of two companies awarded contracts for city road work, the green light to start work on the road. That was about a month ago, although nothing has happened to date. Earls doubts Vinagro that took over Cardi Construction late last year has taken on too much work between state and other municipal jobs to do the job. He notes that Vinagro is working on a couple of smaller city jobs.

Earls intends not to give Vinagro any more smaller jobs until they work on Jefferson Boulevard. If that doesn’t work, Earls said the city can fall back on T. Miozzi LLC, the other contractor awarded a city contract.

“That’s the benefit of multiple contractors,” he said.

The plan is to divide the repaving project into three segments with the first of the work being done from the Route 95 intersection near the Cranston line to Service Avenue. That intersection poses unique challenges as it is the access and egress to Plan Way and a major distribution center for UPS. Daily,  fleets of UPS trucks use Jefferson Boulevard to access Route 95, Post Road and its air cargo operations at the large hangar on Airport Road erected in the 1940s.

“It’s a tricky road,”  Earls said of the boulevard noting both its commercial and commuter traffic. Ironically, he points out, it is the major thoroughfare for the former Cardi operation, now Vinagro.

Being considered is a schedule that would include night work, especially in the vicinity of the Service Avenue intersection so as to reduce interference with UPS operations. The additional phases of the boulevard repaving haven’t been determined, but Earls is hopeful of completing the full project this season.

Coordinating state & city projects

With so much state and local road work planned this summer are there sufficient contractors to do the work? Earls is confident there is, pointing out that over the years the city has worked with a number of contractors in addition to Cardi (now Vinagro) and Miozzi. He named D’ Ambra, Lynch and Narragansett Improvement Co.

And what is being done to coordinate the repaving of Post Road, which the state has planned for this summer, so the road that runs parallel to Jefferson on the east side of Amtrak remains a viable north-south conduit?

As curb cuts for crosswalks and intersection work is being done on Post Road now, Earls is hopeful much of the first phase of Jefferson Boulevard repaving will be completed by the time full repaving of Post Road starts.

Spokesperson for RIDOT, Charles St. Martin wrote in an email, “Many cities and towns are doing local road paving thanks to the Governor’s Municipal Road and Bridge Fund Program, and for each project we coordinated with the communities on the timing of those projects and any potential conflicts with projects that state has planned for efficiency purposes and to minimize the impact on traffic.”

He added, “We cannot control the vendors who bid on state and local jobs.”

And can all the repaving work planned for this summer get done?

What’s been done so far

First, Earls points out that of the $4 million budgeted for city jobs, $700,000 has been spent; jobs are getting done. Streets repaved so far include Union, Hardwick, White, Moccasin, Cove and Thatch Court and in the Oakland Beach area Pequot, Bennett, North Shore, Hunter, Crown and Wood, which Earls explained are all part of the Rhode Island Energy work. Depending on the extent of RI Energy replacement of gas lines, the company picks up a percentage of repaving cost.

“It really helps stretch our repaving dollars,” he said.

 Working in the city’s favor are the apparent effects of global warming. Earls points out it wasn’t that long ago that asphalt plants closed in early October and now they are remaining operational through November.

Still, Earls is reluctant to make promises even when the city acknowledges “your street” needs repaving. He points to three factors that need to align for the job to happen:

• That the funding is available.
• That utility work – RI Energy replacement of natural gas lines, city water and sewer work – not follow the job done by the city.
• The condition of the road

Mayor Picozzi identified Kilvert Street as a priority.

Earls points out drainage issues with the road and how that needs to be addressed first. And Picozzi notes that with residential development taking place the need to build sidewalks that may require a realignment of the road because of the proximity of the solar farm to the south and utility poles.

Earls explained why some roads in tough condition get passed over while those in better condition get repaved.

He said the standard mill and overlay repaving, which is the bulk of repaving work, is less costly than the reconstruction of a road. In addition, if done soon enough a mill and overlay averts a reconstruction.

“Complete reconstruction (of roads), we try to get to them,” he said.