Lori Caron Silveira, Director of the Rhode Island Turnpike at Bridge Authority (RITBA), presented at the Town Council meeting on April 20, offering reassurance that the state agency is pushing forward with maintenance work that will ensure the Mt. Hope Bridge lasts another 50 to 75 years.

The proposed cable dehumidification technology needed to extend the life of the iconic bridge is expensive, with a projected $35 million price tag. But that’s a fraction of what the cost would be for a full cable or bridge replacement. Silveira suggested that they are hopeful that good news about funding for this project is imminent.

“We have already gone out to bid for companies who would undertake the design of the project right away, once we have the funding in place,” she said. Though an earlier effort to obtain much-needed federal funds fell short, an updated proposal was submitted to the US Department of Transportation on April 14, and RITBA hopes to hear some good news about that any day now.

“I think it’s important to reiterate that the bridge is safe,” said Councilor Mary Parella. “I think you should just reiterate that point.”

“Absolutely, and I'll leave that to my Director of Engineering,” Silveira said, introducing Eric Seabury.

“Yes, the bridge is safe, absolutely,” he said, noting that the cable dehumidification plan will arrest deterioration. “It basically stops it in its tracks.” He assured the Council that any cable deterioration will be stopped well above the threshold set by the Federal Highway Administration.

Cameras and communication

Bristol Police Chief Kevin Lynch’s concern was less about cables and more about communication.

“I would just ask that when construction begins that you have outreach with the town administrator and the police department,” he said. “We only have a couple of ways in and out of town, so we like to really educate the community on timelines with construction so that they can plan different routes.”

He also mentioned a lesser-known technology that is due to be implemented on the bridge in the near term: safety cameras.

Referencing a meeting last year between Silveira and bridge-adjacent police chiefs, Lynch said, “We discussed technology to improve a police response to attempted suicides and suicides on the bridge…You had some cutting edge technology that would identify if a car stopped on the bridge, if a person got outside of the car, and then that would be an audibly speak to that person that help was on the way.”

Lynch said that he has a grant from the Patton Foundation to help implement that technology, and plans to present a plan to the Council at the May or June meetings.

“I don't know if you have an update on where that technology stands, but my office is very interested in in those updates,” he said.

“Our employees have been trained on that system, it is fully operational on the Pell and we are on the cusp of having it fully operational on the Mount Hope Bridge,” said Silveira.

“We finished the full installation on Newport first,” said Seabury. “They [traffic management technicians] have been going through and doing a test of the Newport system to make sure that it's picking up cars or stopped vehicles or pedestrians appropriately. We're working through some bugs, quite frankly, but we're proceeding with the procurement of the last bit of material and equipment for Mt. Hope. All the fiber optic wiring is in place. All the mounts are in place. Some cameras need to be put on the mounts, we had to order some special poles. But that's the next phase of the project, to get that finished. We're actively working towards that now. It's my expectation that June 1 I will have some good news for you indicating that this is operational to the extent that we that we were expecting.”

To the Chief’s concerns about traffic control, Seabury said, “I won’t stand here and promise that there won't be traffic interruptions [but] we're going to try to mitigate and minimize the traffic interruptions because we obviously know how sensitive it is on that bridge.”