RIDOT Promises to Expedite Road Repairs After Rough Winter

Officials from the state Department of Transportation met with municipal leaders on Thursday to talk potholes and road repair.

The meeting was supposed to stimulate conversation and offer a chance for officials to share ideas and best practices that “may lead to more collaborative approaches to tackling road repairs in the future,” the DOT said in a release.

“This meeting presents a unique opportunity for us to step back and take a global look at how we address the challenge of potholes as a state,” RIDOT Director Peter Alviti Jr. said. “The public isn’t concerned with whether it’s a state or a local road; they just see a road. We owe it to them to do whatever we can to keep this critical infrastructure in good condition.”

Officials got a demonstration from Karl Wadensten of Rhode Island’s VIBCO Vibrators. His company has created a line of pothole filling machines that compact the material in such a way that it tends to not pop out like traditional means.

The DOT said that creating an inventory of locally-available equipment, the state can “better assist cities and towns in deploying existing resources and addressing badly damaged areas.”

Earlier this month, the DOT deployed 50 to 70 crew members each day as it began road repair operations.

The DOT has also hired an on-call pothole patching service, which will help the DOT fill potholes more quickly and with less travel impacts.

One new method being used this year is spray-injection technology to repair potholes. Along with doing the job more quickly, the repair tends to last longer.

The old method relies on the use of hot boxes mounted to the back of a truck that keeps the patch material at a usable temperature. The material is then shoveled into the pothole by hand and tamped down manually.

Self-propelled, spray-injection pothole machines can complete the task twice as fast as manual methods.

The DOT is also working on an inventory list of the state’s worst roads and using information gleaned from conversations with city and town officials to make sure the key roads are taken care of first.

“Rhode Islanders have endured a tough winter,” Governor Gina Raimondo said. “As the grass begins to peak through the melted snow, our state roads are beginning to show the wear and tear of Rhode Island’s severe winter weather. My administration is committed to tackling our poor road conditions with urgency in order to restore the damage caused these past few months.”

“It is not enough to address potholes; we need a systemic approach to addressing the longstanding issues that have been hindering travel in this state for quite some time,” RIDOT Director-Designee Peter Alviti Jr. said. “And we have to work together. The condition of our roadways is an important part of our state’s economic health. These actions we are taking – and those to follow in the coming months – help us further the Governor’s mission to keep Rhode Island moving and better position it for economic growth.”

For more information, or to report a pothole, go HERE.