Westerly: Rte. 91 Bicycle Restrictions
Aug 2nd, 2010 | By Mark Dieterich | Category: UncategorizedWe received the following announcement from RIDOT:
Westerly: Rte. 91 (Oak St./Westerly-Bradford Rd.) from Rte. 3 (High St.) to State Highway Garage, and from State Highway Garage to Bradford Railroad Bridge, various lane closures for construction, Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A one-way alternating traffic pattern may be in place from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Pedestrians and bicyclists are restricted on Route 91 (Westerly Bradford Road) in the area of Newton Swamp during construction.
The construction is expected to last two weeks. You can can check the RIDOT travel advisory page for ongoing updates. Not knowing the area at all, I corresponded with RIDOT engineers about the need for a bicycle restriction. Apparently this particular section will be reduced to a single lane for a significant distance, will have no viable extra width to accommodate bicycles and automobiles concurrently, and experiences a significant elevation change. The elevation change would slow cyclists significantly. Does anyone have live or ride in this area and can actually attest to the road conditions along this stretch?
There are two sections of route 91 under construction, the north/south part from Bradford to Dunn’s Corner Rd where it veers SW to Westerly. I frequently ride the former to the ocean. At the present time traffic has been stopped at two places as crews are putting in side walks., not the most convenient thing but it is one of only a few north to south routes in Westerly. A fresh paved surface will be very nice as it wasn’t a good surface to begin with. When crews are not working, the shoulder is filled with a long wall of those orange reflective cans forcing bikes into the traffic lane.
I never travel the other part of route 91- going into Westerly (between Dunn’s Corner Rd and Westerly) because it is just one of those roads I never have reason to use,even by car, It was a narrow shouldered, broken up road with heavy, fast traffic that cuts though two low laying areas, Chapman Pond to the west and Newton Marsh to the east, both areas of road that were closed-except to boats-in the spring floods. In fact loss of this road during the flood isolated several homes I heard. The two slight rises in elevation are on either side of Newton Marsh.
If this area was restricted for bicycles it would cause long detours for the bicyclist who had reason to use it.
I am hoping that new pavement will be widened on a short section of rte 91 just north of the Dunn’s Corner Rd intersection, as this will provide a nice shoulder all along Rte 91 from Carolina from the north to rte 1, using said Dunn’s Corner Rd. Right now it is too narrow and dangerous for younger or inexperienced cyclists.
It seems to me that this project has been going on for while and progress is being made and hopefully it won’t be going on for too much longer?
John S
Ashaway