Another milestone

Long-range planning, especially for interstate transportation infrastructure, is a process often measured in decades. If you have been following the quest to bring our shoreline rail and commuting abilities into the 21st century (and Rhode Island,) then this milestone will make you happy.

Alexander Berardo, Principal Planner at Town of Coventry, shares the following progress report with the EDC:

“Another piece of good news to share: the draft Long-Range Transportation Plan was released following the Transportation Advisory Committee meeting this past Thursday, and the Westerly Station high-level platform project has been incorporated into it as a Regionally-Significant Project. You can see it on p.41 here. (Editor’s note — this hefty 59-page presentation is online and can be viewed without downloading.)

“Even though both the LRTP and STIP are still in draft form and won't be finalized until later this year, I think it's safe to say this is now a "real" project in the state's eyes -- it's been vetted and accepted into both the overarching statewide transportation plan and the more granular list of projects to pursue. 

“Just as the STIP is only updated once every four years, the LRTP is only updated once every five years. That means this was a once-in-20-years opportunity to get the station upgrade project listed in both plans at once. So, with a mix of lucky timing and hard work, I'd say we've played our hand about as efficiently as possible so far! There's still plenty more work to do, but we all deserve to be proud of reaching another important milestone.

“One final note: I was pleasantly surprised to read on p.14 of the LRTP that one of the strategies the state intends to pursue in support of its "Improve Regional Connectivity" objective is to "Coordinate cross-border transit service throughout the Providence and Westerly/New London urbanized areas." For so long, Westerly was basically an afterthought -- now, we're seeing the first signs that the policymakers upstate are looking out for us beyond their usual Providence-centric, one-size-fits-all approach.”