Representatives from the Rhode Island Department of Transpor-tation and a representative from The Friends of India Point Park conducted a tour detailing the Route 195 highway relocation project's impact on India Point Park early Sunday morning. The informative walk through the park drew approximately 30 people from the Fox Point neighborhood and from across the state.
"It's a good opportunity to see what's going to happen before construction starts," said Bob McMahon, deputy superintendent of the Providence Parks Department.
The project will move Route 195 a mile south, where it would run along the Providence Hurricane Barrier, further from India Point Park. Currently, the highway runs parallel to India Point Park, which will become the first exit off of Route 195, according to Lambri Zerva, the principal engineer of RI-DOT.
Fox Point residents who wish to travel eastward on the new Route 195 will have to travel down India Street, increasing traffic in the area.
"This will be good and bad for the park," said David Riley, co-chair of the Friends of India Point Park. The increased traffic "gives us eyes for the park, but also more noise."
The Brown Boathouse, located at the end of the park, will also be affected by the construction. The off ramp in front of the boathouse will become a green space. There will also be a new entrance for it off of Gano Street.
Gano, which runs perpendicular to the east end of the park, will be cleaned up and more parking lots will be added to it, Zerva said. One proposal places a boat ramp and 17 parking spots at the end of East Transit Street, McMahon said.
The Washington Bridge, whose rehabilitation in 1997 began the project, will face more construction as its pedestrian walkway is expanded to 20 feet and divided between a bike and a pedestrian path. The Washington Bridge project will begin in September and is expected to last two years.
Current construction has shut down access to the park from South Water Street, as well as the entirety of India Street. "We tried to make it as pedestrian-friendly as possible as well as try to narrow the work zone down as much as possible," Zerva said.
Work on the main highway and the park should be done by 2008, according to Zerva. Some bridges will not be demolished until 2012, however.
Debate over construction
Some aspects of the construction plans have met with discontent from members of Friends of India Point Park and other Providence residents. The East Bay Bike Path is one such source of conflict between DOT and the FIPP.
DOT plans call for the bike path to leave the park over the pedestrian bridge, but the FIPP would like the path to continue along the park until the Providence River, Riley said.
A new pedestrian bridge from Wickenden Street to India Point will be erected a few feet over from the recently demolished old bridge. It will be located between the Tockwotten House and stone pier area of the park and will not intrude into park land. The bridge is being constructed to be more aesthetically pleasing than the former one, with ornamental as well as highway lighting and a surface that will make the bridge distinct from the asphalt road. The design will allow the park's sledding hill to remain.
Aesthetic and environmental considerations
Friends of India Point Park was founded in 2000 to combat the impact of the highway project on the park. "Trees don't vote," Riley said. "Various neighborhoods have associations that speak for them, but no one speaks for parks." The highway project began in the '90s with environmental impact statements before moving on to actual engineering and construction in 1999 and 2000, according to Patrick Vu, a civil engineer with DOT.
FIPP has worked with DOT to make sure that the construction affects as few trees as possible. John Campinini, a retired city forester, was consulted by DOT about the possibility of saving some trees originally slated to be demolished, Riley said. "There is no question that a lot of trees were saved and a lot of good sized trees have been transplanted along the shore," he said. Riley added that DOT was committed to watering the relocated trees for three years. Zerva said that they are "all done with taking down trees in the park" at this point.
The role of public art in the project was also important to Sunday's crowd. Rhode Island law requires that 1 percent of all expenditures for construction, remodeling, or renovation of any state facility be expended on works of art for the facility, but according to McMahon, this rule is never really enforced. "No artists besides architects and engineers are involved," Zerva said. "We are well above the rule of thumb in the amount of money being spent on landscaping," he continued. "Everything was looked at in terms of urban design."
An example of this is the bike path tunnel, which will be completely tiled and colorful, according to McMahon, and the new mural at the playground, which was built by public funds.
The pilings that currently litter the water in front of the park are another source of debate, McMahon said. "The coast guard would like every one of them gone because they get loose in the winter and become navigational hazards."
While he said that at some point the city will be taking down most of the pilings, one crowd member said that the pilings "were more aesthetically pleasing than concrete walls," which would likely replace the pilings.
Some suggested stabilizing the pilings and making them public art, installing them in the park - such as has been done with various railroad scraps - or giving them to members of the Fox Point community. One crowd member argued that they were a "reminder of what India Point was back when it was a pier."
Sarah Zurier, a steering committee member, said that the pilings, along with a sunken ship that is close to the waterfront, are "little reminders of what the Providence waterfront was."
Community feedback
Zurier, who has been with Friends of India Point Park for four years, said the park was important to her. "I used to live in Fox Point, so this was the major park for me and my dog Olivia." She said that she likes the idea of the "the pedestrian bridge becoming much more gracious and welcoming." Her main reason for working with the group was "to preserve the character of the park that was created in the '70s and make sure it is not washed over with what we think is a good idea in 2005."
Deena Liffman '56, who lives in Cranston, said she was not connected with FIPP but was "interested to learn about the park." Liffman grew up in Providence, went to Brown and still gives tours of the city. Although she hadn't seen all the proposals at the time of the tour, she thought it was a "great idea to connect (India Point Park) to the Waterplace Park walkway."
