Elementary School Solving Traffic Woes With New Parking Lot Design

The Aquidneck Elementary School is about to get a back-to-school facelift to expand the school's parking lot to improve safety at the bus boarding area and provide sufficient parking at the facility, which serves Pre-K through Grade 3, according to school officials.

"Right now, the buses, the parents and general traffic enters and exits in one location," explained Edward Collins, Director of Facilities for Middletown Public Schools. "It gets to be a bottleneck there and it's a safety concern."

The Middletown Public Schools Department is currently accepting bid proposals for work to begin by early- to mid-August with hopes of completing the first of four project phases before the start of the new school year in September.

Phase 1 will create a new lot entrance and exit off Aquidneck Avenue and relocate the bus boarding area to the other side of the building, away from faculty traffic and parental drop-offs and pick-ups, said Collins.

When the total project is complete, the parking lot will have an additional 50 parking spots. The additional parking will also help alleviate other problems, he noted, such as cars parking on the grass or clogging Reservoir Avenue when ball games take place on the neighboring little league field or other functions at the school or recreational grounds.

Much of the traffic problem can be traced back when the addition was put on the school in the 1990s without adding more parking spaces to accommodate the increased staff, Collins said. 

School officials hesitated to estimate the total cost of the project until all project bids were received, but noted the expenditure would be covered under the school department's capital improvement budget.