Roundabout at Clements', repaving of East Main Road in Portsmouth, Middletown in the works

PORTSMOUTH — For close to two decades now, town officials have envisioned a walkable Town Center that would have a roundabout at the intersection of East Main Road and Turnpike Avenue in front of Clements' Marketplace.

The state Department of Transportation notified the town recently it will begin scoping and design work for that roundabout this year. Under the plan, there also would be some sidewalk work done from the roundabout to Town Hall along East Main Road.

That work will cost a projected $20 million, according to documents presented to the Town Council at the end of December by Pamela Cotter, DOT’s administrator of planning. The design work will be done this year, but construction could be up to two years away, according to DOT officials.

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“Traffic-calming measures will be incorporated into the design, things like pedestrian-controlled crosswalks, flashing lights and signage,” said Town Administrator Rich Rainer. “We’re looking forward to working with them and having some input into the design.”

Idea of a roundabout has been floated around for decades

A 2003 report completed by Taylor & Partners Ltd. of Newport for the town portrayed a pedestrian-friendly town center with a roundabout in the middle. The center would “provide a sense of place with which the Portsmouth community could identify,” the report said. “While Island Park, Mt. Hope Bridge and Melville have their distinct characteristics, the Town Center should embody the civic and commercial center of town.”

Back in September 2019, Town Councilwoman Daniela Abbott told the Daily News: “My pie-in-the-sky dream is it’s an area where you can park, there’s green space to walk around, go to Clements’, grab a cup of coffee, browse around the Portsmouth shops,” she said. “A community center that a lot of vibrant, small towns have. It’s not going to be easy to get from where we are now to that vision, but taking small steps would be the goal.”

She was referring to the 2003 plan when she said that. Not everything in that plan will take place, but there will be a series of steps.

For example, for the Town Center roundabout area, the relocation of 37 utility poles is anticipated. However, the DOT document says there will be “limited sidewalk replacement, limited sidewalk extension, and handicap ramps.”

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“In order to create a viable Town Center, in which pedestrians can cross Route 138 (East Main Road) safely, it will be necessary to slow traffic to less than 20 mph,” the 2003 plan said.

To do so, the plan recommended installing three roundabouts between Town Hall and Clements’ Marketplace and reducing East Main Road along that stretch from four lanes to two, along with a median with breaks to accommodate turning motorists.

Rainer pointed out the upcoming project will create one roundabout and he does not believe a median will be installed because of the narrowness of East Main Road. The Town Council in the past has rejected the idea of a “road diet” for the East Main, going from four lanes to two, because of the impact it would have on traffic flow.

Repaving of East Main Road into Middletown also in the works

There are approximately 24,800 vehicles per day that travel along East Main Road, based on historic traffic volumes, according to the DOT. The posted speed limit on most of East Main Road is 35 mph.

Cotter presented more than 20 pages of documents to the council in December because she wanted the town’s assent to combine three separate pending Transportation Improvement Program projects targeted for East Main Road.

After the Town Center project, the second project involves the repaving of East Main Road from Hedly Road, which is where Town Hall is, to the Middletown town line. The projected cost for this resurfacing is $8.78 million, according to the document.

“The proposed work will most likely require some utility pole relocations,” Cotter wrote.

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The third project is the resurfacing of East Main Road from the Middletown line almost to Aquidneck Avenue, but will not include that intersection. The projected cost for this work is $3.7 million, so DOT is now budgeting at total of almost $32.5 million for the East Main Road projects.

“Each project had its own separate timeline,” said Town Planner Gary Crosby. “They said they will accelerate those timelines.”

For example, in the Transportation Improvement Program, the timeline for the Town Center roundabout project was scheduled for sometime between 2024 and 2027.

“Right now they are going through the design scoping process to identify all the things that will be done under the project," said Charles St Martin, DOT’s chief of public affairs. “That work happens this year. The project construction would start in late 2023 or early 2024.”

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“When the Town Council gave its assent, they wanted to make sure the planning takes into consideration the recommendations of the East Main Road Safety Audit completed by DOT in 2020,” Rainer said.

Cotter said in a memorandum the “Road Safety Audit should be consulted for immediate and near-term safety improvements that can be incorporated into the scope of the resurfacing and Town Center projects.”

“If they can, they will incorporate a shared bike lane,” Rainer said. “But they are also looking at an alternative route because of the narrowness of East Main Road. They also will look at the design of the sidewalks, where the crosswalks would be, and how they would be controlled."

Cotter wrote to the Town Council that it was “the influx of new federal funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that prompted us to consider bundling all of the paving projects along East Main into one.”

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Portsmouth RI: Roundabout, repaving of East Main Road planned