Road Closed for Roundabout Work
By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
April 11th 2024
RICHMOND – Construction of the roundabout at the junction of Routes 138 and 112 is progressing, with part of Route 112 (Richmond Townhouse Road) closed on Thursday morning, so it could be widened.
Reached Thursday, Town Administrator Karen Pinch said,
“112 is closed right now and they are actually grading it all the way up to 138, and it’s been widened so that the curve of the road is actually abutting the new retention pond, so it’s actually starting to look like a roundabout. It’s got turn lanes now, where it didn’t before.”
Some Background
The Rhode Island Department of Transportation first proposed the project in 2019. Designed to slow traffic and reduce accidents, the roundabout will require vehicles to slow down to 25 miles per hour. to about 25 miles per hour, has been used successfully in many other cities and towns.
The roundabout will include sidewalks and cross walks for pedestrians.
The project will cost $6.5 million and is expected to be completed by April, 2025. A new water line, a town project funded by a $292,660 grant from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, is being installed at the same time.
Road Closures
Pinch said she had been told by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation that there would be intermittent road closures. On Thursday, motorists were directed to the section of Route 138 that runs behind the Town Hall. That road will become a one-way East when the project is complete, with the westbound direction permanently closed.
“If you were coming West on 138, where you would normally turn onto 112, today, that’s closed,” Pinch explained. “So, people are having to go a little further down to that cut-off road. … What’s going to be one-way is, if you’re coming 138 east, where you fork right to go between the Town Hall and the golf course, that’s going to be one way only, to Chariho Furniture.”
The project is progressing smoothly, with Manafort Brothers Inc. taking over the work started by the original contractor, the now-defunct Cardi Corporation.
Pinch warned motorists travelling on Route 138 to use caution because of the equipment at the bottom of the hill.
“You have to move slowly,” she said. “Just now, coming down the hill, to where the machine is that’s milling was literally adjacent to a sign and a drainage structure, I was behind a school bus and he was creeping, because it was super-tight, between their milling machine and that drainage structure that he really couldn’t drive over, because it’s really pretty high.”
The intermittent closures of Route 112 will continue as the grading continues to prepare the road for the first layer of asphalt, which is expected to be applied next week.