Bicyclists wasted very little time breaking in the new wooden boardwalks built on the Barrington and Warren river bridges recently. 

Shortly after the boardwalks were opened, bicyclists were spotted cruising over them. The wooden boardwalks are part of improved detours for the closed East Bay Bike Path bridges.

Charles St. Martin, a spokesman for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, said the state is also very close to putting out an RFP (request for proposals) for the replacement of the bike path bridges.

“RIDOT is putting the RFP out as a design-build by the end of December which will allow companies the most amount of creativity possible in proposed solutions for replacing both bridges given the $10 million budgeted for it,” Mr. St. Martin said. “We are cautiously optimistic we will be able to get both of them built, that is our goal, but we do have a constrained budget of $10 million. It is important to note that the design-build approach offers the flexibility to add additional funds should they become available to us.”

It was recently reported that funding for the East Bay Bike Path bridges has made its way into the 2022 Appropriations bill that was unveiled by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee. Senator Jack Reed, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, advocated for $154 million in federal funding for projects across Rhode Island, including $5 million for the bike path bridges. (The Appropriations bill is separate from the federal infrastructure package.)

Mr. St. Martin offered a comment regarding the federal funding.

“RIDOT is aware of a pending earmark for this bill but at present we understand it hasn’t been finalized,” he said. 

The bike path bridges have been closed since the fall of 2019, when Rhode Island Department of Transportation officials deemed them unsafe for joggers, walkers, bicyclists and anyone else who wanted to cross them. (The sidewalks on the bridges had been blocked off at an earlier date.)

A detour created by the DOT drew a concerned response from residents, town officials and state legislators, so transportation officials created a series of detour safety improvements.