By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority plans a year-long celebration as the Newport Pell Bridge turns 50 years old in 2019, and the agency will also look ahead to potential new services, including pedestrian and bike paths on all of its bridges, as well as efforts to “monetize” the bridges.
In the planning stage for the new year are parties, a parade and a fireworks display, all paid for with private funds.
“We really want to… nip in the bud, people saying, ‘I’m paying all these toll dollars to go over the bridge and they’re going to private events’. That’s not where we’re coming from,” said Evan Smith, the President and CEO of Discover Newport who’s just been named chairman of the Committee Chairman for the bridge celebration. “We’ll go out and we’ll find private sponsorship dollars for the fireworks.”
The Pell Bridge is in the final stages of a $100 million dollar rehabilitation project, said Turnpike and Bridge Authority Executive Director Buddy Croft.
“It cost about $55 million dollars to build,” in 1969, Croft said. “It would probably cost in the area of $1.5 billion to build today, and that’s one of the reasons we do our very best to maintain it to the best of our ability.”
He’s also opening a discussion of potential plans to build pedestrian and bicycle paths across the Pell Bridge and the other bridges under the Authority’s control, including the Jamestown Verrazzano and Mount Hope Bridges. The recently-built Sakonnet River Bridge already has a bike and pedestrian path.
Croft said he is also looking at ways to “monetize our assets”, which could include building an elevator and observation deck atop the West tower of the Newport Pell bridge to give a unique, commanding view of Newport.
“The view from up there is extraordinary,” said Smith. “We think we have an opportunity here to create new visitor experiences that would be absolutely outstanding.”
Construction began on the Newport Pell Bridge on April 5, 1966, and the official opening was June 28, 1999. Events for the run-up to and the actual anniversary of the opening have not yet been finalized.
