The Middletown Town Council has targeted key road projects for state funding.
At a public hearing Monday night in Town Hall, the council set streetscape upgrades to the lower Aquidneck Avenue area, including new sidewalks, street lighting, drainage and other enhancements as its top priority project for the State Transportation Improvement Plan.
Town Planner Ronald Wolanski explained that each community can ask for up to five projects in the STIP, which outlines road work and improvement goals through 2035.
Rounding out the council’s Top 5 were sidewalks or shared-use paths for Paradise Avenue and Oliphant Lane and intersection improvements at East Main Road and Aquidneck Avenue, as well as West Main Road and Forest Avenue.
In a memo to the council, Wolanski said the STIP is a long-range planning document put together by the State Planning Council. That group is responsible for highway, intermodal, transit, airport and freight rail projects across Rhode Island.
To be eligible for federal funding, he said STIP projects may include:
- Resurfacing, reconstruction or construction of roads that are federal aid system eligible.
- Ride sharing programs and transit improvements.
- Bicycle and pedestrian projects like sidewalks, bike paths and lanes as well as recreational trails.
- Intersection upgrades.
- Projects that improve air quality.
Wolanski said the state hasn’t opened the STIP up for new projects since 2017.
The deadline for Middletown to submit new STIP projects to the state is March 14.
Read more from the Town of Middletown here – Middletown wants state road work.
