Rhode Island Funding Highway Expansion Despite Poor Road Conditions

“Instead of prioritizing the proper maintenance of Rhode Island’s transportation systems, transportation officials are spending the bulk of their resources on expansion,” writes Charles Marohn in a pointed essay for Strong Towns.

Marohn compares the transportation investments of Rhode Island to Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

The poor state of the state’s transportation infrastructure is obvious by almost any measure:

More than 80% of Rhode Island’s non-interstate National Highways System (NHS) is in either poor or fair condition. Furthermore, the state leads the nation with the highest percent of rural roads with poor pavement condition. According to TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit, driving on roads in need of repair cost Rhode Island motorists $620 million a year in additional car repairs and operating fees, or $823 per driver.

Moreover,

Rhode Island ranks last in the nation, 50th out of 50 states, in overall bridge condition. About 22% of the 1,162 bridges in Rhode Island are structurally deficient. 

Marohn cites the Cranston Canyon Project, a project planned to widen five miles of roadway and construct a new bridge, as an example of Rhode Island’s commitment to funding new road infrastructure even as the state’s existing roads crumble.  

While the official press release for the project “highlights rehabilitation and maintenance efforts that are included in the project, of the $78 million in non-admin project costs, widening projects constitute $41.4 million, or 53% of the total,” writes Marohn. A federal BUILD grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, is funding about half of the expansion portion of the project, according to Marohn. (BUILD is the predecessor program, under the Trump administration, to the Biden administration's RAISE grant program. BUILD was the successor to the Obama administration's TIGER grant program.)

The article concludes with an appeal for Rhode Island, and other states, to stop funding road and highway expansion projects until existing infrastructure is stabilized—a passionate appeal for a “fix it first” approach to transportation investments.