East Bay Bike Path will have bridges again. What you need to know about the multi-year plan

BARRINGTON — If there were popularity contests for bridges, they might look like Monday's announcement that the East Bay Bike Path bridges will, by popular demand, be back by 2025.

Three years after the state Department of Transportation declared the wooden spans over the Barrington and Palmer rivers a safety hazard, the agency says it finally has enough money to replace them.

It will take a while.

Getting permits to start work on the two, 300-foot-long bridges is expected to last through next spring so construction can start next summer. And who knows what kinds of supply shortages could crop up by the time construction is completed.

Up for a hiking challenge?: Tackle this section of the North South Trail in Exeter

But for cyclists forced onto the Route 114 bridges and local streets, anglers or neighborhood children who walk to school, the announcement that the bike path will be made whole again is welcome news.

"It is primarily a safety issue — the vehicular bridges are not built for the bicycle traffic and sooner or later there is going to be an accident," said Rep. Jason Knight, one of five East Bay state lawmakers who lobbied for the bridges to be replaced. "It is not just a frill. It is an economic driver for Warren in particular... It is a substantial piece of our life around here."

How much will the bridges cost?

The new bridges are expected to cost $24 million and the federal government is slated to pick up $19 million of that total.

Here's what the East Bay Bike Path bridges look like

Assuming everything goes according to plan, the new bridges will be 14-feet wide, 4-feet wider than the existing bridges, and have 2 feet higher clearance from the river surface.

Perhaps more noticeably, cyclists crossing the new bridge will no longer bump across wooden slats on their way to the other side and instead roll over an "epoxy-applied aggregate" laid over steel panels.

The history of the old East Bay Bike Path bridges

The old wooden bridges were built in the 1880s and were used to carry trains across the rivers through the 1970s.

When trains stopped running, the right of way was turned into a bicycle path in the 1980s over opposition from some neighbors.

In 2019, the DOT was planning to repair the bridges, but discovered their condition was worse than expected and they would have to be closed and replaced.

But building new bridges would cost more than double the $10 million the DOT had set aside for repairs, so for three pandemic-plagued years the bike path was in limbo.

"We were scrambling to find the funds to replace these bridges and that was a big issue here," state DOT Director Peter Alviti Jr. said at the afternoon news conference at the bike path.

Journal Editor's experience: How a serious bike crash led to my favorite story of 2021 from Executive Editor David Ng

How are the bridges on the East Bay Bike Path being paid for

The state built a $2-million semi-permanent detour bike lane, stoking concerns that the bridges would never be replaced.

But pressure from Barrington and Warren to restore the bridges was intense and the search for more federal money for full replacement began.

Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse got a $5-million earmark for the bridge last year and then in August the latest federal appropriations package brought the state another $48.5 million in transportation funding, of which $9 million was put toward the bike path.

Here's what happened in March: Rhode Island gets $5 million to rebuild East Bay Bike Bridges, but it may not be enough

When the bridge repair project was put on hold, the cost of moving utilities that follow the bike path across the water was cited as one of the hurdles for the project, but the modular design being used on the rebuild should not require moving the overhead wires.

Aetna Bridge and VHB have been hired by the state to design and build the new bridges and Alviti said using a combined "design-build" process helped keep the bridge project at $24 million.

"My wife Susan and I have used this many times and we enjoy it," Gov. Dan McKee said about the bike path.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: East Bay Bike Path bridge replacement to move forward