The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) is expanding its overhead lighting curfew on Thursday, June 9, 2011 to include additional highways and intersections throughout Rhode Island. Combined with the roads that are already part of the curfew, the reduced lighting program will pass the $500,000 mark in anticipated savings in electricity.
RIDOT has installed lighting system timers on selected highways. These devices turn the lights off from midnight to 5 a.m. on Sunday through Thursday nights and from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Turning these lights off during the late-night and early-morning hours, when traffic volumes are at their lowest, reduces electrical costs and preserves the limited funding that is available to maintain the State’s transportation infrastructure.
“As RIDOT has expanded the overhead lighting curfew program, it has carefully studied each location,” RIDOT Director Michael P. Lewis said. “We will continue to monitor them and make adjustments if needed.”
The following roads and intersections will be added to the overhead lighting curfew program on June 9, 2011:
• Cumberland, Lincoln: Route 99, excluding the Route 146 interchange.
• North Kingstown, Jamestown: Route 138, from the Route 1 interchange to the Pell Bridge, excluding the Jamestown-Verrazzano Bridge and the Park and Ride at Route 1A and Route 138.
• Portsmouth, Tiverton: Route 24, from the Turnpike Avenue interchange in Portsmouth to the Massachusetts state line, excluding the Sakonnet River Bridge and the Park and Ride on Boyds Lane in Portsmouth.
• Warwick: The intersection of Route 5 at Route 113.
• Westerly: The intersection of Route 1 (Post Road) and Route 78.
• West Greenwich: I-95 at Exit 5 (Route 102), Exit 6 (Route 3), and Exit 7 (New London Turnpike).
The overhead lighting curfew program began in May 2010 with a three-month pilot study of overhead lighting on Route 4 from Exit 8 in East Greenwich to Route 1 in North Kingstown, all of Route 403 in East Greenwich and North Kingstown, and on Route 6 from Route 10 in Providence up to and including its link with I-295 at Exit 6 in Johnston. In October 2010, RIDOT added on Route 37 from the Post Road exit in Warwick to the Route 2 exit in Cranston.
As RIDOT continues to evaluate its lighting system, more overhead highway lights are expected to be shut off on additional State roadways.
Those with questions can contact RIDOT’s Customer Service office at 401-222-2450 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Additional information will be available on RIDOT’s website (www.dot.ri.gov) and its social media sites on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Blogger.
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Contact: Bryan Lucier 401-222-1362 x4012