Jef NickersonRemember back in 2009 when Kennedy Plaza was closed down for repaving? Yeah, well, they didn’t do it right, so they are doing it again.
RIPTA’s CEO Charles Odimgbe (who was not CEO at the time of the last paving) noted that when the Plaza was built, and most recently repaved, concrete pads were not placed under the pavement where the buses berth. The weight of the buses will cause conventional paving to fail quickly, which prompted the last repaving to begin with.
In a recent News & Notes post, we shared a story from Gizmodo about how our roads being under-engineered (to save money in the short term) forces us to spend more in the long run on maintenance.
The last repaving project only cost $1.4 million because, you know, it wasn’t done right. No word on how much the fix will cost.
Here’s where your buses will be next weekend:
Greater City Providence
Pavement costs are often overlooked when buses are compared to streetcars. Tracks are a better investment than pavement. Also, rough, potholed streets impose wear and tear on the bus fleet as well as on other vehicles using the route.
I’m hoping they get the contractor who did the last repaving job to pay for this one.
How they could skip the cement is beyond me. There are DEEP ruts in Kennedy Plaza.
And where does the #53 stop? I don’t see that on their map.
Why stop with the pavement ? There is a lot at Kennedy Plaza that “they didn’t do right the first time.”