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March 12, 2008

Governor to announce panel to study DOT money needs

PROVIDENCE -- Governor Carcieri and the state Department of Transportation director today will announce a panel to study Rhode Island's transportation money needs for the coming five years.

The panel is expected to make recommendations to the governor in six months, Carcieri's office said in a news release yesterday.

Carcieri and DOT Director Jerome Williams are scheduled to hold the 1 p.m. State House news conference in the State Room.

The governor is expected to talk about the panel’s mission and make-up, Rhode Island's challenges as it works to rebuild aging roads and bridges, and the money necessary for those challenges.

In just-released documents, according to a Journal story today, the FHWA has made public a second notice to the DOT that it would not be reimbursed for some Route 195 relocation costs, this time for $679,399 of the cost of metalizing steel for the new Providence River Bridge, or coating it with zinc to protect it from rust. The federal agency said the zinc coating wasn’t thick enough to meet minimum standards and is therefore ineligible for federal reimbursement

Federal officials recently demanded that the state repay $3.1 million because the DOT didn’t adequately test concrete on major sections of its flagship Route 195 project, which it calls the Iway.

The department is also dealing with bridge repairs, such as the Pawtucket River Bridge which carries a stretch of Route 95.

And the DOT will soon have a new boss: Michael P. Lewis, whom Carcieri hired last month. Lewis is fresh from running a mega-transportation project - Boston’s Big Dig.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal reports

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 8:04 AM | Permalink

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