Newport Awarded $500K To Address Wellington Ave Street Flooding

NEWPORT, RI — Newport officials were awarded a $500,000 grant to help remedy flooding related to sea level rise in the Wellington Avenue area of the city.

The grant comes from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and was funded by the green economy bonds previously approved by voters. Once finished, the project will solve dry-weather flooding and reduce wet-weather flooding in the areas as much as 80 percent with the installation of tide gates and bar racks.

"Here in Newport, we experience the damaging effects of rising sea levels on a regular basis," Rep. Lauren Carson said. "Many of our neighborhoods, attractions and historically significant places are being eroded and damaged as a result. This grant will provide a very welcome, helpful resource to protect the Wellington Avenue neighborhood, which has suffered from increasingly common and serious flooding, and I’m grateful to the state and city officials for working together to secure it."

Carson has long pushed for solutions to flooding caused by sea-level rise, both by reducing carbon emissions and improving infrastructure resiliency.

"Flooding has a devastating economic impact on individual property owners, businesses and the public," Carson said. "Each investment we make to improve our resiliency is also an investment in our economic security in the future. Rhode Islanders have been very supportive of bonds that protect our environment, our green spaces, and help us adapt to our changing climate. I’d like to urge voters to support the green bond again this November, because that funding is an important resource for projects like the one that will help Wellington Avenue. "