What Roads Coventry Plans To Fix With New State Grant, Other Funding

COVENTRY, RI — A new state grant program was made available Wednesday to pay for road, bridge and sidewalk construction projects in cities and towns throughout Rhode Island.

The RI Ready Municipal Road Fund Program makes $20 million available to fund these types of local projects throughout the state, including in Coventry.

"We will be applying for the program as soon as possible and hope to start by the fall," Coventry Town Manager Daniel Parrillo said. "Our share of the $20 million is approximately $800,000, so our match will be $1.6 million. This will be added to the current program we have just started, Pave it Forward."

The Pave it Forward program was unanimously passed by the Coventry Town Council at last week's meeting. It's a 10-year plan that along with the state grant, aims to make road upgrades throughout the town's five council districts.

"Roads are one of, if not the most, visible piece of infrastructure that a municipality provides to its residents," Town Council President Hillary Lima said. "Coventry has not made an investment in its roads and sidewalks in almost 10 years, and I’m pleased the council pulled the trigger on this commitment without hesitation."

Town officials said the roads selected for the program were chosen based on their pavement conditions index (PCI) score in Coventry's 2021 StreetScan survey. During the survey, a third party consultant scanned every town road and sidewalk and gave each a rating based on their condition.

Roads that made the list for the first year of the program in 2023-2024 include, Sisson Road, Daniel Drive, Chandler Drive, Colvintown Road, Hill Street, Blackrock Road, Whittier Drive, Wendy Drive, Longfellow Drive, Lions Drive, Quiet Avenue, Cape Way, Sophia’s Way, Brentwood Drive, Hazel Street, Prospect Street, 3M Road, Silver Maple Drive, Steere Lane, Pine Lane, Mapleroot Road, Bestwick Trail, and Minda Lane for a total of 24 roads. Town officials said paving is scheduled to begin this month.

Town officials said Coventry will pay for the project with a portion of its available American Rescue Plan Act funds to gradually ramp up fully funding a capital improvement line item for road repair in the operational budget. The grant will also help pay for the project, Parrillo said.

"The town of Coventry is the largest town by landmass in the state making road and sidewalk infrastructure repairs critical and making this commitment from the town council paramount,” Parrillo said. "The longer these infrastructure issues don’t receive necessary, regular maintenance, the costs to address our roads continue to skyrocket, especially in this age of historic inflation."

With roughly 80 percent of all miles of road in the state maintained by cities and towns, state officials said the grant investment will upgrade roadways and sidewalks across Rhode Island, increase safety, meet the growing infrastructure needs as the state looks to increase housing development, and support the growth of businesses. With the state’s commitment of $20 million dollars and communities matching, state officials said Rhode Island could see up to $60 million invested in local infrastructure by October 2026.

"We're ready to fix Rhode Island's roads and bridges and finally improve our state’s infrastructure rankings — and with our municipal leaders on board, this is the team that’s going to get it done," McKee said. "This program is a huge win for Rhode Island, taking $20 million in federal funds and leveraging those dollars into $60 million for local infrastructure repairs."

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